Two men using an electric power saw to fell a tree circa 1940's. (Photo by Keystone View/FPG/Getty Images)

Bathing suit models are shown listening to the radio on the beach, circa 1940's. (Photo by Bettmann Archive/Getty Images)

An elephant enjoys its back being scrubbed by the keeper on March 1, 1950. (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images)

A new monorail service in Houston, Texas, ready for its inaugural service. (Photo by Evans/Three Lions/Getty Images). Circa 1950

It is already one of the world’s most iconic cities, but this incredible collection shows how much Paris has changed over the course of the past century. The collection, by French photographer Julien Knez, shows Paris in the 1940s against a backdrop of how the same places look today. Knez says he put the striking collection together to celebrate the 71st anniversary of the city’s liberation from Nazi control in August 1944. Here: Soldiers outside the Hotel De Ville in the 1940s. (Photo by Julien Knez/Caters News)

Guests on the terrace of Shepheard's Hotel, Cairo, circa 1940. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Two elderly men smoking pipes of opium on a terrace in Korea. (Photo by Bert Hardy/Picture Post/Getty Images). August 1950