The country of France is famous for its man-made wonders such as the Eiffel Tower and The Louvre. The country also smolders with natural beauty where you can find mountains like Mont Blanc and stone cliffs like the Scandola Nature Reserve. Despite the beauty it entails, the country once held a dreary landscape when World War 1 transpired.
While one of the greatest wars in the history already ended a century ago, its lingering memories are still present across France and Belgium. One of which is the Zone Rouge (“the red zone”), where the bloody Battle of Verdun materialized. The area is closed and forbidden for the public to witness for nearly a century.
The area has been enclosed in a fence for public safety as there are stillundiscovered and unused dangerous weapons and human remains scattered about the area. Because the place is littered with so many things which may wreak havoc, the government decided to completely relocate inhabitants from the area in 2012.
Forest keepers and hunters still wandered the area until 2004, when German researchers concluded to have found 17 percent arsenic in the soil of the area, which is revealed to be ten times higher than what other red zones have.
Those arsenic levels are 300 times higher than what us, humans, can endure. Lead levels also appear to be high in many of the animals, especially the wild boars.
A photographer also captured a spot wherein a church was once established.
Water is not potable in the area as weapons used during the war emitted a chemical compound named perchlorate.
In 1946, the French called Department du Deminage, which is in charge of clearing out weapons around the area, deemed their cleaning efforts successful by the start of the 1970’s. As such, they opened up more lands and roads to the public without considering the perils of detonating a number of chemical bombs.
was recorded that hundreds had died from the remaining munitions in the area. The area has to suffer another 10,000 years from non-biodegradable lead, mercury, and zinc from the remaining shrapnel. On the other hand, people who try to remove the munitions also suffered.
To remember those who died for France, there are memorials in the zone opened for the public to see.
The inhabitants in the surrounding areas hoarded their personal collections of the remnants, while others even opened small museums to feature their collections.
Some claim that it will take roughly 300-700 more years before the area is completely cleaned, while some claim that it will never reach that point.
Zone Rouge presently stands to be a lingering memory of the horrors of the war.
Does Zone Rouge intensify your curiosity or your fear? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!
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