Since tomorrow (Wednesday) is Anzac Day, Australia's most solemn national holiday, I decided it was time to go see the Shrine of Remembrance. Lots of school groups were there too, color-coded by uniforms which seem designed to look tatty. Completed in 1934, the monument was inspired by the tomb of King Mausolus at Halicarnassus, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, and peers down Swanston Street from an elevation south of the CBD. Like ancient Greek architecture it corrects for certain optical illusions by a curvature of all horizontal lines; all the verticals incline slightly and if projected would converge 2250m above floor level.Constructed to honor the 114,000 Victorians who served the British Empire in WW1 (19,000 died), the Shrine now also honours those who served and fell in later (and present) conflicts. (Australia's been sending its youth
to fight other people's wars for most of its history, the present Iraq war being only the most recent.) The sanctuary and crypt are full of names of battles and battalions, battle standards and a display of medals so long it's divided in two by a glass wall - the setting for this rather creepy picture.