Flanders's western front offers interesting battle tours

Almost 90 years after the end of the First World War, tourists are paying their respects at the battlefields of Flanders.

The western front claimed literally millions of lives during the war, with trench warfare meaning few territorial gains for either side.

The remains of the trenches have formed ridgelines in the surface of northern France and Belgium and it is now possible to take tours explaining the sacrifice made by both sides and their families.

Leper, formerly known as Ypres in French, is a good place to begin a tour of the fields as it is possible to see how the town experienced a rebirth after its destruction during the conflict.

The local Flanders Fields museum, housed in the Cloth Hall, contains photographs, interactive media and film aimed to help visitors understand the horror of the war.

Essex Farm is where Canadian doctor Colonel John McCrae helped the injured and wrote the famous poem In Flanders Fields.

The entire Flanders area is dotted with memorials and cemeteries with anonymous graves marking the deaths of many thousands of conscripted soldiers.