The Eternal Flame and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

At the center of the arch's floor burns an eternal flame, surrounded by an inscription in French honoring the unknown French soldiers who died in World War I. It reads: "Here lie French soldiers who died for the fatherland, 1914–1918."

The remains of an unknown soldier from World War I really do rest beneath the arch. The tomb was placed here in 1921 to honor the roughly 1.4 million soldiers who gave their lives for France's victory. The flame, first lit two years later in 1923, has burned for about a hundred years without going out. Even in 1940, when Nazi Germany occupied Paris and marched through the Arc to show off its power, the troops reportedly would not step on the tomb and detoured around it. The flame is rekindled in a solemn ceremony every evening at 6:30 p.m., with a bell tolling for the dead and a one-minute silence.

Opposite the flame are plaques honoring those who died in various wars.

Here, the sacrifice of countless people who gave their lives in war lives side by side with the present-day determination to remember them forever.