LONDON - Getting up close to Big Ben requires earplugs, and ear defenders over them to be safe. When the 13.7-tonne bell sounds, the vibration hits you in the chest.
After a five-year restoration project, the world-famous ringer is back with a bong.
The Great Clock towering above Britain's Houses of Parliament is resuming daily operations following the painstaking renovation of more than 1,000 moving parts.
When the clock's five cast-iron bells including Big Ben fell silent in 2017, a mournful crowd of parliamentarians and staff gathered below. Some shed tears.
But after a week of testing, normal service will resume every 15 minutes from 11am on Sunday.
The time marks the moment on 11 November 1918 when the guns fell silent in World War I. In Britain, Remembrance Sunday immediately follows Armistice Day every November 11.
They are two of the few occasions that Big Ben and his partners have rung since 2017, along with New Year's Eve, when Britain left the European Union in 2021, and the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in September.
The five-year restoration involved cleaning and repainting each of the five bells' hammers and arms. The bells themselves stayed in place.
Big Ben sounds the hour, and is so large that flooring in the tower beneath would have to be dismantled if it ever had to be removed.
The four smaller bells around it sound the quarter-hour.
The biggest job was taking apart the 11.5-tonne clock mechanism dating from 1859 so that every cog and pinion could be cleaned, repaired and re-oiled by a specialist company in Cumbria, northwest England.