This is the remains of Fort Douaumont, a World War I fort just outside of Verdun in France. Just up the road is an ossuary where the bones of 130,000 unknown soldiers are laid to rest. The ground around here is pockmarked with craters where German shells landed and trenchlines where French soldiers fought. It is a brutal place, one of 19.

In the forests around are remains of barracks, water towers. Entire towns were erased from the map by the shelling, and foundations of those can be seen also.

The Battle of Verdun: 306,000 dead, at least 500,000 wounded. What a place.