TOMB OF THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER

Throughout history, many soldiers have died in numerous wars without their remains being identified. In modern times, nations have developed the practice of having a symbolic 'Tomb of the Unknown Soldier' that represents the war grave of those unidentified soldiers. They usually contain the remains of a dead soldier who is unidentified (or "known but to God" as the stone is sometimes inscribed), thought to be impossible to ever identify so that he might serve as a symbol for all of the unknown dead wherever they fell. Much work goes into trying to find a certain soldier, and to verify that it is indeed one of the relevant nation's soldiers.

Contents

History

National examples

Images

References

History

Perhaps the first memorial of this kind in the world is the 1858 ''Landsoldaten'' ("Foot Soldier") monument of the First War of Schleswig in Fredericia, Denmark. Another early memorial of this kind is the 1866 memorial to the unknown dead of the American Civil War.
The modern trend was started by the United Kingdom in 1920 when it buried an Unknown Warrior on behalf of all First World War British Empire forces in Westminster Abbey. This was a significant gesture since Westminster Abbey is where the good and the great are buried. The coffin was followed into the cathedral by the King-Emperor, George V and escorted by a guard of honour formed of one hundred recipients of the Victoria Cross^[1] Part of the inscription on the stone reads:
:''They buried him among the kings Because he Had done good toward God and Toward His house''^[2]
Other nations followed this example. A famous tomb is the one in France under the Arc de Triomphe that was installed in 1921 honouring the unknown dead of the First World War, or the one in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada shadowed by the Canadian War Memorial.
These tombs are also used to commemorate the unidentified fallen of later wars. Monuments have been built as recently as 1982 in the case of Iraq, 1993 in the case of Australia, and 2004 in the case of New Zealand.

National examples

Country	Location	Description
Argentina	Metropolitan Cathedral in Buenos Aires	Tomb of the Unknown Soldier of the Independence
Australia	Australian War Memorial in Canberra
Austria	''Heldenplatz'' in Vienna
Belgium	Colonnade of the Congress in Brussels	The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the base of the location.
Bolivia	Monumento al Soldado Desconocido in La Paz	The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, center piece of the location.
Brazil	Monument to the Pracinhas in Rio de Janeiro	The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the platform of the location.
Bulgaria	Monument to the Unknown Soldier in Sofia
Bulgaria	Monument to the Unknown Soldier in Haskovo
Canada	Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the National War Memorial, Confederation Square, in Ottawa
Chile	General Manuel Baquedano Square in Santiago	It contains the remains of a soldier who died in 1881 during the War of the Pacific.
Confederate States of America	Beauvoir, the Last Home of Jefferson Davis in Biloxi, MS
Czech Republic	National Memorial on Žižkov (Vítkov) Hill in Prague
Denmark	Fredericia	Called the ''Landsoldaten'' ("The Foot Soldier") monument.
Egypt	Cairo	Also includes the tomb of President Anwar Sadat.
Estonia	Cemetery of the Estonian Defence Forces in Tallinn.	(see )
Finland	Hietaniemi military cemetery in Helsinki
France	Beneath the Arc de Triomphe in Paris
Germany	''Unter den Linden'', Berlin	Within a 19th century guardhouse, the ''Neue Wache''
Greece	Syntagma Square (Constitution Square), Athens	(see )
Hungary	Heroes' Square, Budapest
Iraq	The Monument to the Unknown Soldier, Baghdad	(see )
India	Under The All-India War Memorial Arch, New Delhi
Indonesia	Bandung	The Field of Honour is a memorial to unknown soldiers. There is also the Tomb of the Unknown (Dutch) Sailor in Kembang Kuning war cemetery in Surabaya.
Italy	Rome, Piazza Venezia	The Tomb of the ''Milite Ignoto'' in the ''Altare della Patria'' (Vittoriano)
New Zealand	Tomb of the Unknown Warrior, National War Memorial in Wellington
Peru	Plaza Bolivar (Bolivar Square) in Lima	It contains the remains of a soldier who died in 1881 during the War of the Pacific.
Philippines	''Libingan ng mga Bayani'' (Cemetery of Heroes) in Manila
Poland	Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Marshall Józef Piłsudski Square in Warsaw	The tomb was constructed as arcade of Saxon Palace, the Palace destroyed in 1944. It contains the remains of a soldier who died between 1918 and 1920.
Portugal	Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Monastery of Batalha
Romania	Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Carol Park, Bucharest
Russia	Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Alexander Park, Moscow
Serbia	Monument to the Unknown Hero, Mt. Avala, Belgrade
Slovenia	Monument to the Unknown French Soldier, French Revolution Square in Ljubljana
Ukraine	Dnieper Park, Kiev
United Kingdom	Tomb of The Unknown Warrior, Westminster Abbey in London
United States	Tomb of the Unknowns, Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia
United States	Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Washington Square in Philadelphia
Venezuela	Tumba del Soldado Desconocido, Campo de Carabobo, Carabobo

Images

References

1. Description at the Westminster Abbey website
2. Adapted from ''2 Chronicles'', Chap 24, Verse 6: "And they buried him in the city of David among the kings, because he had done good in Israel, and toward God and his house."