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The Canadian Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, photographed from the side, facing the National War Memorial (Canada), Ottawa

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 while remaining a symbol for all of the fallen, yet unidentified soldiers of the nation. Much work goes into trying to find a certain soldier, and to verify that it is indeed one of the relevant nation's soldiers.

Perhaps the first memorial of this kind in the world is the 1858 [1] 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 the place where monarchs, the nobility and other people of high esteem are buried. 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

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, 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.

Italian Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in the Altare della Patria, in the complex of Vittoriano in Rome	French Tomb of the Unknown Soldier beneath the Arc de Triomphe, Paris	The Greek Presidential Guard Evzones, changing guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Syntagma Square, Athens	India Gate in Delhi, India. A flame known as the Amar Jawan Jyoti (the flame of the immortal soldier) is kept perpetually alive here
Part of the Polish Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Warsaw	The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in the Australian War Memorial, Canberra	Changing Honour Guard at the Russian Tomb of The Unknown Soldier in Alexander Garden of Moscow	Iraqi Monument to the Unknown Soldier in Baghdad
Dutch The Landsoldaten ("The Foot Soldier") monument in Fredericia, Denmark