The Fading Battlefields of World War I

This year will mark the passing of a full century since the end of World War I—a hundred years since the “War to End All Wars.” In that time, much of the battle-ravaged landscape along the Western Front has been reclaimed by nature or returned to farmland, and the scars of the war are disappearing. Some zones remain toxic a century later, and others are still littered with unexploded ordnance, closed off to the public. But across France and Belgium, significant battlefields and ruins were preserved as monuments, and farm fields that became battlegrounds ended up as vast cemeteries. In these places, the visible physical damage to the landscape remains as evidence of the phenomenal violence and destruction that took so many lives so long ago.

Read more
Hints: View this page full screen. Skip to the next and previous photo by typing j/k or ←/→.

Most Recent

  • Todd Korol / Reuters

    Photos of the Week: Monkey Blessing, Gondola Crossing, Ocean Odyssey

    The aftermath of Hurricane Milton in Florida, restoration efforts in the Vatican, a beachside air show in California, a historical autumn fair in England, cranberry harvesting in Massachusetts, and much more

  • © Hikkaduwa Liyanage Prasantha Vinod / Wildlife Photographer of the Year

    Winners of Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2024

    Winning and honored images from the annual competition produced by the Natural History Museum in London

  • Crystal Vander Weit / TCPalm / USA Today Network / Reuters

    Photos: Florida Braces for Milton’s Wrath

    Images of Florida residents preparing themselves for Hurricane Milton—their second hurricane in less than two weeks

  • Lluis Gene / AFP / Getty

    Photos: Building Human Towers in Spain

    Images of these amazing structures, and the effort involved in forming them