At 5:26 a.m. on December 26, the earth quaked five miles [8 km] south of the city of Bam in Iran. The magnitude 6.5 quake devastated 70 percent of the city, claimed 40,000 lives, and left more than 100,000 homeless. It was the most lethal natural disaster of the year. It also turned much of Bam’s 2,000-year-old citadel, Arg-e-Bam, into rubble, robbing the region of an economically important tourist attraction.

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IRAN 2003​—Earthquake in Bam kills 40,000; women mourn relatives at a mass grave

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Background and women: © Tim Dirven/Panos Pictures