That said, the world is changing too fast to remember the excitement of the past, so we have invented literature, painting and now photography to fight against time and forgetting...
Compared to words and paintings, photographs are more direct and objective records of history, such as the following comparison of the world's most famous attractions across decades, or even hundreds of years, which gives people a sense of trance through time...
The Eiffel Tower during the 1900 Paris Exposition, next to a giant celestial sphere 45 meters in diameter, where visitors can sit in a chair while looking down on a panoramic view of the solar system.
The foreign pavilions on the Seine at the 1900 World's Fair, also known as the Quai des Nations, housed most of the foreign pavilions at the fair, which were dismantled one after another at the end of the fair.
Notre Dame de Paris before and after the April 2019 fire that destroyed its iconic Gothic spire, and restoration of the damaged parts of the church only officially began late last year.
The Place du Carrousel in 1878, behind the Arc de Triomphe are the ruins of the Tuileries Palace, which was burned down during the Paris Commune movement in 1871 and demolished in 1883.
The courtyard of the Louvre in 1921, which originally contained a statue given to France by the Americans as a return gift for the Statue of Liberty, was replaced in 1983 by a glass pyramid designed by I.M. Pei and this statue was moved elsewhere.
Mont-Saint-Michel, a conical mountain near the French department of Manche, a religious sanctuary with beautiful scenery, turns into an isolated island at high tide. Between 1901 and 1939, there was also a railroad that communicated between the island and the mainland, quite like a thousand and one water trains... This railroad was dismantled in 1949.
New York's iconic building: the Empire State Building, 1931 vs. the present. When it was just completed, there were not many tall buildings nearby, as if through the tower...can imagine the people nearby, a look up to see this behemoth, will be a kind of oppressive feeling...
The Taj Mahal in the 19th century was a lush, multifaceted garden next to the clear waterway in those days. But not do people after the arrival of the Great Britain, changed to a lawn-based Western-style garden...
When the pyramids of Giza were first built, the outside was covered with a very flat and smooth layer of white limestone, but it was only with the erosion of the years and the wind and rain that the large yellow stones we see now were revealed.
The Colossus of Ramses II, a 3,200-year-old statue of the ancient Egyptian pharaoh Ramses II, has long since lost its color with the passage of time.
A comparison of the Sphinx before and after its restoration. In the mid-19th century, most of it was still buried under yellow sand, with mangled ears and a pockmarked face.
Basilica of St. Martin the Great, Cologne, Germany, 1944 vs. 2022, severely damaged by Allied bombing in World War II.
Not far away, the Cologne Cathedral, built almost 700 years ago, was spared because of a request from the German Catholic Church through the Holy See. The church was started in 1248, repaired for more than two hundred years, then stopped for more than four hundred years, and in the 1865 photo you can still see the mechanical arm that had been on the shelf for centuries...
Statue of Liberty, 1886 vs. now, when it was still being built in Paris, the original color was still copper, and the green Statue of Liberty we see now is actually oxidized copper green.
The Hollywood sign on top of a hill outside Los Angeles, originally only a billboard called the real estate project, the full name was hollywoodland, the LAND section was removed in 1949 and is now the official cultural and historical monument of Los Angeles.
Grindelwald, Switzerland, known as one of the most beautiful towns in the world, skiing mecca, 1858 vs. 2022, the change is shocking ah...
The Pyramid of the Mexican Feathered Serpent, an important relic of the Mayan civilization, was built in the 10th century AD, and at the end of the 19th century was an insignificant earthbag, forgotten by the world...
The ancient city of Teotihuacan, Mexico, the most important remnant of Indian civilization, was founded between the 1st century B.C. and the 1st century A.D. It was comparable in size to Chang'an, China at the time, and at the beginning of the 20th century the vast majority of its remains were buried beneath the loess.
The Pyramid of the Sun in the ancient city of Teotihuacan, 1900 vs. 2022 This Teotihuacan ruin, comparable in size to the Pyramid of Khufu in Egypt, is one of the largest structures in Central America.
Turkey's Magnesia Ancient City Stadium, the largest and best preserved ancient stadium in the world, this 40,000-seat marble stadium was only discovered in 2012.
Rome Constantine gate, 170 years apart, the saplings of that year have grown into gigantic trees, Rome such a big city, at that time looks similar to the countryside...
The Arch of Taisifon, Iraq, date of construction: 6th century A.D. In this place of constant conflict, it is a blessing that the ruins have survived for 1500 years...
The Great Arch of Taissefond in an old photo from 1864, when the right side of the arch had not yet collapsed.
The Greek Parthenon, 1875 vs. 2022, was controlled by the Ottomans during the "Siege of the Acropolis" in 1687 and was used as a gunpowder store.
Stonehenge, England, late 19th century vs. now, wasn't even considered an attraction back then and many of the stones have fallen to the ground.
The Palace of Westminster in London , 1880s vs. now, has hardly changed except that the carriages in the street have become cars and there are a few more trees.
Machu Picchu, Peru, one of the New Seven Wonders of the World and the greatest archaeological discovery of the 20th century, was a lost and mysterious city until the world discovered it in 1911, due to its unique location, flanked by cliffs.
In fact, after Peru was colonized, the Spaniards knew that there was a mysterious ancient Inca city in the mountains of the Peruvian Andes, but after 300 years of searching, they were still unable to find it.
Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, the most beautiful and famous beach in the world, before it was disturbed by humans, actually had to be more beautiful...
The Buddhas of Bamiyan, Afghanistan, excavated in the 5th century A.D., a World Heritage Site, and also visited by Xuanzang, were destroyed by the Taliban in 2001.
The square in front of the Taihe Hall of the Forbidden City in Beijing, 1901 vs. now, when Cixi fled to Xi'an with Guangxu due to the invasion of China by the Eight-Power Allied Forces, only to return to Beijing in 1902, for more than a year, the Forbidden City was almost in an unmaintained state, with barren grass growing everywhere.
The Forbidden City Wenyuange, the imperial library of the empire, here is even more exaggerated, the barren grass is taller than a man, lost the royal atmosphere.
The "South City" of the Badaling Great Wall in 1903, when it was a problem to eat and live, not to mention reforestation, there was hardly a tree to be seen on Badaling...
Comparison before and after restoration of the section above the north fourth floor of the Badaling Great Wall, 1895 vs. now.
The Juyongguan Great Wall during the Anti-Japanese War. The old picture is after the Japanese army captured Juyongguan, which was restored in 1993.
Of course, the Great Wall can enjoy restoration treatment few and far between, most are not attractions, no commercial value of the Great Wall of the Wild, are facing the fate of disappearance ......
Perhaps in the future, more and more monuments, we will only be able to feel them from the video material...
