Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

In World War I, huge numbers of soldiers died without their remains being identified. The practice developed for nations to have a symbolic Tomb of the Unknown Soldier that represented those unidentified soldiers.

They usually contain the remains of a dead soldier who is unidentified, and is thought to be impossible to ever indentify. Much work goes into trying to find a certain soldier, and to verify that it is indeed one of your own soldiers. The most famous, and earliest, is that in France under the Arc de Triomphe that was installed after the First World War.

These tombs are also used to commemorate the unidentified fallen of later wars. Although monuments have been built as recently as 1982 in the case of Iraq, it is unlikely that any further ones will be constructed. Advances in DNA technology mean that even the tiniest fragment of bone is usually identifiable.

Examples include:

• Australia: the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the National War Memorial in Canberra
• Belgium: the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is at the base of the Colonnade of the Congress in Brussels
• Canada: the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the National War Memorial, Confederation Square, in Ottawa (formerly at Vimy Ridge in France)
• France: the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier beneath the Arc de Triomphe in Paris
• Germany: the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is a former 19th century guard house, called Neue Wache in Unter Den Linden, Berlin
• Greece: The Monument of the Unknown Soldier is in Syntagma Square (Constitution Square), Athens
• Iraq: The Monument the Unknown Soldier is in Baghdad
• Indonesia: The Field of Honour is a memorial to unknown soldiers, and is in Bandung. There is also the Tomb of the Unknown (Dutch) Sailor in Kembang Kuning war cemetery in Surabaya.
• Italy: the Tomb of the Milite Ignoto is in Rome, piazza Venezia, in the Altare della Patria (Vittoriano)
• Poland: the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is in Marshall Jozef Pilsudski Square in Warsaw
• Russia: the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is in Alexander Park, Moscow
• Ukraine: the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is in Dniepr Park, Kiev
• United Kingdom: the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior at Westminster Abbey in London
• United States: the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia
• add other countries' memorials

• U.S. Tomb of the Unknowns
• U.S. Tomb of the Unknown Soldier Facts
• Remembrance Day