Thousands of people lined the streets on Monday as King Charles III led a procession through the centre of the Scottish capital Edinburgh behind the coffin of his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, as it headed to St Giles' Cathedral.
Walking next to the queen's three other children, Charles followed the coffin for the short distance up the Royal Mile from the Palace of Holyroodhouse, where it had rested overnight.
It came amid the sound of guns fired at one-minute intervals from Edinburgh Castle.
Queen Elizabeth II's coffin, which will lie in state in London for four days later this week before her funeral next Monday, was reportedly crafted more than three decades ago.
The casket will rest closed on a raised platform known as a catafalque inside Westminster Hall -- the oldest part of the centuries-old parliamentary estate -- from Wednesday, after lying at rest in Edinburgh for a day from later Monday.
It is lined with lead, a royal tradition to help preserve the corpse for longer after its burial in a crypt -- on this occasion inside the King George VI Memorial Chapel at St George's Chapel in Windsor, west of London.
Lead is said to make the casket airtight, helping to stop moisture from getting in but making it significantly heavier. The queen's coffin requires eight pallbearers to move it.
It matches another made for the late queen's husband, Prince Philip, who died last year and was interred at the crypt where she will soon be buried alongside him.
(With inputs from AFP)
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