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Abandoned Mosque Emerges from Shrinking Reservoir in Drought-Stricken India
Screengrab from Manmauji Baba's YouTube video
By Aspen Pflughoeft

 

An abandoned mosque resurfaced from the bottom of a shrinking reservoir in India, video footage shows.

The structure – rising 30 feet above the ground at the peak of its dome – sits entirely exposed on the muddy ground of the Phulwaria Dam reservoir in  Bihar , a northeastern state in India, Kashmir Media Service reported.

The  mosque  boasts three archway entrances with matching domes on top, video footage from Manmauji Baba shows. The brick facade looks dark brown at the base, fading to light tan at the top. Eight towers shoot out above the remarkably well-preserved building as water laps nearby, videos show.

Locals say the mosque is called  Noori Masjid  and could be up to 120 years old, local outlet Dainik Bhaskar reported.

A large population used to live around the mosque, Dainik Bhaskar reported. Ruins of other buildings litter the landscape of the drying reservoir, video shows.

That changed in the 1980s with the Phulwaria Dam, Kashmir Media Service reported. Locals were forced to leave and move to other nearby villages, abandoning the mosque, the outlet reported.

In the 30 years since the reservoir submerged the mosque, its towers and domes were occasionally visible, but the rest of the structure remained submerged, Kashmir Media Service reported.

This year, however, Bihar received 40% less rainfall than usual by mid-August and is experiencing drought conditions,  Indian Express  reported. It could be one of the state’s driest seasons in the last 50 years, the outlet reported. – Miami Herald