Zone Rouge (First World War)
Coordinates: 50°22′N 2°48′E / 50.36°N 2.80°E / 50.36; 2.80
The Zone rouge (French for "Red Zone") is the name given to about 1,200 square kilometres (460 sq mi) of land in northeastern France that was physically and environmentally destroyed during the First World War. Because of hundreds of thousands of human and animal corpses and millions of unexploded ordnance that contaminated the land, some activities in the area such as housing, farming or forestry, were temporarily or permanently forbidden after the war by French law. Some towns were never permitted to be rebuilt.
Restrictions in the zone rouge still exist today although the controlled areas have been greatly reduced.
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