In the Roaring Twenties, a booming global economy and an optimistic post-First World War atmosphere led to a surge in tourism. This was the first decade that passengers could experience plane travel, although it was a luxury available to the wealthy few. Even so, many people began to embark on vacations at home and overseas, being able to see some of the world’s most famous landmarks up close for the first time. Here’s what they looked like around 100 years ago, compared to today.

With its ornate, Neoclassical and towering 164-foot (50m) frame, it’s hard not to be impressed by the Arc de Triomphe. It’s not surprising, then, that the lavish landmark took a whopping 30 years to build. Commissioned by Napoleon I in 1806, the arch stands at the center of the aptly-named Place de l’Étoile, or Star Square, whose streets radiate outwards in a star-like formation. Pictured here in 1929, it’s surrounded by electric street lights – Paris was the first city in the world to introduce this innovation in 1878.

As well as the stunning sculptures that adorn the outside, each depicting a military victory, the insides of the pillars bear the names of French generals who died in battle. Ever since its completion in 1836, the arch has been the site of many important marches, as well as serving as the start point of the Bastille Day Military Parade and the end point of the Tour de France. Today, visitors who climb the 280 stairs to the top will be rewarded with stunning panoramic views across Paris.

Arguably even more well-known than the place itself, the Hollywood sign was erected in 1923 – but it once read “Hollywoodland”. In the 1920s, Hollywood was beginning to be recognized as a hub for the movie industry, so real estate developer Harry Chandler built the sign to advertise his new, upmarket housing development. It’s shown here in 1925 with a group of surveyors posing beneath it. The sign was only supposed to last a year and a half, but it has stood for almost a century. 

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So when did it lose those last four letters? During the Great Depression in the 1930s, the Hollywoodland housing development went bankrupt and maintenance of the sign fell to the wayside. When the sign came under city ownership in the mid-1940s, it was almost razed, but the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce decided to axe the “land” part instead. It was then completely replaced in the 1970s, funded by Playboy mogul Hugh Hefner and other celebrity donors. Seen here from LA, the sign is now synonymous with Tinsel Town.

As recently as the 1880s, Times Square (then known as Longacre Square) was a fairly empty space with a smattering of apartments. But that all changed in 1904, when The New York Times built a huge tower here for its new headquarters and the area was renamed Times Square. In the 1920s, West 42nd street became a stop-off point for new subway lines and bus routes, cementing the square’s position as the hub of the city.

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The area’s reputation dwindled in the 1960s and 1970s, as it began to be associated with crime and adult entertainment – in fact, by the late 1970s it was receiving the most crime complaints in all of the city. Plenty of money and resources were plowed into redevelopment projects from the 1980s onwards. Today, Times Square is known for its splashy billboards and neon lights, and while it might be preferred by snap-happy tourists to locals, it remains one of New York City's most recognizable attractions.

The Eiffel Tower has become synonymous with Paris. So you might be surprised to learn that when the design was first revealed, many people thought it was ugly. To mark the city’s International Exposition of 1889, a competition was held to design a new monument and the winning idea, created by French engineer Gustave Eiffel, was selected out of more than 100 entries. But many locals thought the building would clash with Paris’ aesthetic and wrote a letter railing against its construction.

Despite backlash, building works went ahead and the Eiffel Tower was completed on 31 March 1889. Although it was only meant to last 20 years, it began to be used as a radio antenna for communications in the late 1890s, and city officials allowed it to stay. It’s a good thing they did: nowadays, the landmark is typically visited by around seven million visitors a year and it’s one of the most popular attractions in France. 

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Shown here in 1924, the beautifully symmetrical Taj Mahal is easily India’s most famous landmark. It was built between 1631 and 1648 by emperor Shah Jahan, who wanted to create a monument to his wife, Mumtaz Mahal, who had died in childbirth. Constructed from dazzling white marble, which transforms in color depending on the time of day, it’s considered one of the world’s finest examples of Mughal architecture – a mix of Persian, Indian and Islamic design styles.

As perfectly preserved as it may seem, the Taj Mahal hasn’t been immune to damage over the years. In the late 19th century, following significant neglect and decay, a massive restoration project took place under the order of Lord Curzon, the British viceroy of India. Today, concerns have shifted towards air pollution emitted by nearby factories and cars, which threaten to taint its shining marble façade. The landmark is so popular there are now caps to visitor numbers – it used to be 20,000 people per day, but has been reduced to 5,000 since it reopened in September 2020.

Visitors over the centuries have been wowed by Rome’s Colosseum, and it’s easy to see why. So it’s all the more astounding that this 620 by 513 feet (199 by 150m) amphitheater was built more than 2,000 years ago. Construction began around AD 70 and 72 and lasted for about a decade – the finished amphitheater had space for 50,000 people. However, it has suffered significant decay: by the 20th century, around two-thirds of the original building had been lost due to neglect and damage by several earthquakes.

The Colosseum we see today is a result of extensive restoration in the 1990s. While it may no longer host gladiator fights, the amphitheater puts on regular exhibitions about ancient Roman culture, which are shown to its roughly seven million annual visitors. In December 2020, the Italian government pledged €10 million ($12.2 million) towards another restoration project, which will include a new, retractable floor to reveal secret underground tunnels that were used by gladiators in Roman times. 

Cruise travel was booming in the 1920s, allowing the world’s wealthy elite to access far-flung destinations for the first time. And Egypt, with its many ancient attractions, quickly became popular. Pictured here, a group of American tourists pose with the Great Sphinx of Giza in 1923. This enormous limestone sculpture, measuring 66-feet (20m) tall and 240-feet (73m) long, was built some 4,500 years ago during the reign of Pharaoh Khafre.

The giant statue, located in the Giza Plateau near the Great Pyramid, was modeled on the mythological creature of a sphinx – a human head on a lion’s body. It wasn’t until the early 19th century that the body was revealed, though, when a Genoese explorer and a team of around 160 men attempted to dig it out. Although their attempts failed, the sphinx was completely excavated by the late 1930s. If you look closely, you’ll see that in the previous photograph, its feet are not visible.

Overlooking charming Pariser Platz, Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate is steeped in history. Built between 1788 and 1791 and designed to be an entry point into the city, the Neoclassical gateway was topped with a statue known as the “Quadriga” shortly afterwards. Yet the chariot-and-horses statue was stolen by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1806 and only returned after his forced abdication eight years later. Pictured here in 1928, a Graf Zeppelin, the world’s most successful airship, flies over the gate.

One of the few significant landmarks in Berlin to survive the Second World War, the gate has come to symbolize the division between the East and West – and subsequent unity. In 1961, when the Berlin Wall went up, the gateway was enclosed in an exclusion zone meaning people couldn’t see it. Since Berlin was reunified in 1989, it’s become one of the city’s most popular attractions.

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A century is practically the blink of an eye in Stonehenge’s 5,000-year existence. One of the most famous prehistoric monuments in the world, the awe-inspiring stone circle was built in six stages, from around 3000 BC to 1520 BC. It was made from two types of stone: larger sarsen stones and smaller bluestones. Incredibly, the bluestones are thought to have been transported all the way from Wales’ Preseli Hills, around 200 miles (322km) away, despite weighing between two and five tons each. Stonehenge became a popular attraction in Victorian times, but uncontrolled tourism led to vandalism, so an entry fee was introduced in 1901.

Stonehenge itself hasn’t changed much in the last century, but it’s certainly seen some things. In 1985, a convoy of 600 travelers headed to the site for the Stonehenge Free Festival, only to be met by more than 1,000 police officers. The ensuing clash, known as the Battle of Beanfield, lasted several hours and resulted in 537 arrests. Since 2013, Stonehenge has benefitted from a shiny new visitor center which includes a 360-degree interactive virtual experience, as well as prehistoric artifacts found at the site. In recent years, a fence has also been added, so visitors can’t go right up to the ancient stone structure.

Mexico’s stunning Yucatán Peninsula is packed full of Mayan archaeological sites and Chichén Itzá is easily the most impressive. Covering a four-square-mile (10sq km) patch of arid land, the city was founded around the sixth century AD and it quickly became an economic and political hub, housing some 35,000 people at its peak. Sometime in the 15th century it was abandoned and left to deteriorate, until excavations began in the 1900s. Pictured here is a tourist at the Casa de las Monjas monastery in 1923.

The Pre-Hispanic city has a number of impressive monuments: the pyramid-shaped El Castillo; the Temple of the Warriors; and the Ball Court, an ancient sports arena. And archaeologists are still making more discoveries today. In 2016, researchers found a smaller pyramid inside El Castillo using imaging technology, cementing the idea that the pyramid was built in a nesting-doll formation. The popular site typically draws in around two million visitors annually.

The impressive Duomo in Milan took six centuries, countless rulers and thousands of workers to complete. In fact, the process was so long it turned into a popular idiom for a never-ending task: “lungh ‘me la fabrica del Domm”, which means “long as the work on the Duomo” in Milanese. Started in 1386 by Milan’s ruler Giangaleazzo Visconti, the project was abandoned in 1418. In the 16th century, further works were completed under Archbishop Borromeo, while the façade was finished under Napoleon in the 19th century. Pictured here in 1922, it still wasn’t quite done!

The finishing touches, including the fitting of doors and Neo-Gothic ornaments, were added between 1909 and 1965. Today, it’s hard not to be wowed by the imposing building. Typically, some five million visitors each year come to feast their eyes on the Duomo, with its intricate statues, gargoyles and spires brought to life in shimmering pink-hued marble.

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Little more than two decades old when this picture was taken, Tower Bridge was completed in 1894. The 200-foot (61m) high, 800-feet (240m) long bridge was the largest and most complex bascule bridge of its time – a type of bridge with two split sections which can be raised to allow boats to pass through. The bascules were originally powered by steam and took just a minute to rise fully, although they’re now rarely used.

Its unique construction has proven to be both a blessing and a curse. In 1952, Albert Gunter was driving the number 78 bus across the bridge when the sections began to lift, and he had to accelerate quickly to jump across the bascule. Miraculously, out of all 20 passengers on board, the worst injury was a broken leg. In more recent history, it featured in the London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony, in which a stunt double of the Queen was carried by helicopter through the bridge.

Meaning “high city” in Greek, this aptly-named settlement sits on a steep hill towering above Athens. The earliest beginnings of the city we see today date back to the 13th century BC, when a fortification wall was built around the home of the Mycenaean ruler of the time. Around Athens' Golden Age in the 5th century BC, its best-known landmarks, including the Propylaea gateway and the Parthenon and Erechtheion temples, were built. The site became popular as a tourist destination in the early 20th century and is pictured here in 1925.

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But its long history hasn’t been without controversy. In 1803, a British nobleman, the Earl of Elgin, shipped many of the Acropolis’ ancient sculptures to England and sold them to the British Museum, where they remain today. Although Elgin was given the green light by the occupying Turkish government at the time, successive Greek governments since 1832 have ordered that the artifacts be returned. Yet the British Museum still holds onto them. The Acropolis is one of the most popular attractions in Greece and its museum, which opened in 2009, typically receives more than a million visitors each year.

Pictured here being greeted by a group of sailors in 1920, Lady Liberty was gifted to America by France in the late 19th century. The brainchild of French sculptor Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi, the towering 305-feet (93m) high statue on Liberty Island was built from hammered copper. She owes her distinctive green hue to sunlight and rain, which caused the once-shiny copper to oxidize.

Few New York attractions match the Statue of Liberty’s storied appeal today. Some four million visitors typically come to see the statue each year, and a new museum on Liberty Island, opened in 2019, allows tourists to take a deeper dive into the history of the emblematic monument. It’s also usually possible to climb to the top of the statue’s crown.

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Standing on the banks of the River Thames, the Houses of Parliament were built between 1837 and 1860. Yet the building’s legacy goes back much further than that. A royal palace has existed on this spot since the 11th century, where it remained until it was ravaged by fire in 1512. Renowned architect Sir Charles Barry is responsible for the Gothic-Revival design, which includes 1,100 rooms spread across an eight-acre site.

The Westminster landmark has borne witness to a number of important historical events since then – and survived more than a few scrapes. It was severely damaged by a bomb in 1885, as well as being hit around 14 times during the Second World War and targeted by the IRA in 1974. Today, as well as attracting throngs of tourists, protesters often target the Houses of Parliament, meaning it’s never far from the headlines.

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