For almost half its lifetime, the Berlin wall has existed in a strange afterlife — not as a border, but as a tourist attraction, a surreal remnant of Berlin’s history. The wall — fifty years old this week — is one of the most visited attractions in Europe.

The images below are of the wall, and its daily army of photographers, during this anniversary week. The remains of the Berlin wall are a living part of a living city, and this daily influx of onlookers brings the city’s past into its present, day after day, year after year, even as the grim past of the wall is commemorated.