“The days are long, but the years are short,” is one of those sayings that exemplifies the strange property of time to be both invisible and transient. Indeed, it is not uncommon for people to become so preoccupied with everyday tasks and troubles that they lose the sense of time and let months of their lives slip through their fingers. Nothing helps to be more grounded than seeing the effect of time on familiar items and places.
But even if you don’t intend to view the passage of time from a philosophical angle, it’s definitely neat to see firsthand what a few decades or centuries can do to nature or manmade objects. These pictures will take you on a journey through time.
1. "My great grandfather's British Army issue pocket watch along with the German bullet that it stopped in France in 1914."
2. The stairs on the Great Wall of China. What do you think, how many people walked this path?
3. The Trinity Abbey in Vendôme, France, mid-cleaning. It was founded as a monastery in 1035.
4. This is the oldest "Beware of the Dog" sign in the world. The picture was taken in the House of the Tragic Poet, at the ruins of the Ancient Roman city of Pompeii.
5. You can tell that this forest road in France was in use for centuries.
6. "Holes worn into a tree by Shaolin Monks over centuries of pressing their fingers into the bark to train their finger strength."
7. This car is now part of the forest.
8. Even rocks don't live forever.
9. This is a piece of the Berlin wall. Note the layers and layers of spray paint.
10. A well-worn piano.
11. "This tree is holding up stones from a collapsed wall."
12. This chain was attached to help hikers get through a dangerous part of Angel's Landing hike at Zion National Park. So many people have held onto the chain that it made a dent in the rock.
13. "My grandfather's Liberty Dollar he carried for 50+ years because "a man's always gotta have a dollar in his pocket." Took a few attempts to get it, but you can still make out Lady Liberty."
14. "A cemetery of telephone booths in the UK."
15. This sculpture of Jesus at an abandoned cemetery in Poland is being slowly absorbed by a tree.
16. These two cars left in the woods in Japan, they're barely visible today.
Please share these cool pictures with others!
