Menin Gate in the snow : the lion holding the Ypres Coat of Arms

Winter atmosphere in Ypres : one of the two lion statues standing on both sides of the Menin Gate Memorial

Browse the collection : Ypres cityscape

The site of the Menin Gate was chosen because of the hundreds of thousands of men who passed through it on their way to the battlefields. It commemorates casualties from the forces of Australia, Canada, India, South Africa and United Kingdom who died in the Salient.

(CWCG)

The Menin Gate Lions commemorate the Australian Servicemen who helped defend Ypres in Belgium in 1917 during World War One. In 1936 the Burgomaster
of Ypres presented the lions to the Australian Government as a gesture of friendship between that town and the people of Australia.

(Monument Australia)

Thousands of Australian Imperial Force soldiers marched past the lions and into the muddy trenches of the Ypres Salient in 1917.

(Central Western Daily)