Hiroshima Peace Memorial (Genbaku Dome)

A skeletal dome above the Motoyasu River marks the point where history changed. When the atomic bomb detonated over Hiroshima on 6 August 1945, the Industrial Promotion Hall was the only building left upright near the hypocentre; the city chose to keep its ruin exactly as the blast left it. UNESCO inscribed the Genbaku Dome in 1996 — a World Heritage memorial that speaks both of humanity's most destructive weapon and of the enduring plea for peace.