The tomb of the unknown soldier exists in many countries in the world (Australia, Brazil and France, etc.) and is used to commemorate the soldiers who fought and died during war time. How then did this practice ever come about and where and when was the 1st tomb erected? Also, how many such tombs are in the world today?

guitargoddess

It's hard to say when exactly it started, probably quite a long time ago. The practice became widespread, however, after the First World War, as there were untold number of unidentifiable bodies on battlefields, or soldiers gone missing and presumed dead. The idea of the Tomb of the Unknown was to provide closure for families whose son/husband/brother was missing but not identified - any number of families could think "It's my son in that tomb", and it was a symbolic proper burial for all those lost. source: my own knowledge, from war history classes According to this website, the oldest known Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from modern times is the Tomb of Unknown Soldiers in Fredericia, Denmark (1858), which memorialized unknown soldiers who died in the First War of Schleswig. Another pre-WWI Tomb of the Unknown can be found in Philadelphia, memorializing those lost in the US Civil War. http://www.destination360.com/north-america/us/pennsylvania/tomb-of-the-unknown-soldier I don't think you'll find an exact number of how many exist today; most countries have at least one. There's a pretty extensive list here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomb_of_the_Unknown_Soldier Jan 10 10, 2:32 PM

author

According to some Danish sources, this monument called "Landsoldaten" (The Country Soldier) from 1849 is the first of its kind. http://wpcontent.answers.com/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Landsoldaten.jpg/256px-Landsoldaten.jpg Jan 11 10, 5:28 AM