Queen's Coffin Leaves Buckingham Palace For Final Journey, Hundreds Pay Respects. In Pics

Queen Elizabeth II left Buckingham Palace for the last time Wednesday, her coffin borne to the Houses of Parliament by a horse-drawn gun carriage and trailed by grieving family members. (Source: PTI)

The coffin will lie in state for four days until the late monarch’s funeral on Monday, with hundreds of thousands of people expected to file past. Eight pall bearers carried the oak and lead-lined coffin into Westminster Hall, placing it on a raised platform known as a catafalque. (Source: PTI)

The coffin was draped in the Royal Standard and topped with the Imperial State Crown – adorned with almost 3,000 diamonds -- and a bouquet of flowers and plants including pine from the Balmoral Estate, where Elizabeth died last week. (Source: PTI)

An escort of two officers and 32 troops from the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards in red uniforms and bearskin hats walked on on either side of the gun carriage. Big Ben tolled, a gun salute boomed from Hyde Park and the martial strains of a military band accompanied the procession. (Source: PTI)

The 38-minute procession ended at Westminster Hall, where Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby led a service attended by Charles and other royals after the coffin was brought in. The choir of Westminster Abbey and the Choir of His Majesty’s Chapel Royal sang the words of a psalm. (Source: PTI)

King Charles III, his sons Princes William and Harry and other members of the royal family walked behind the gun carriage. (Source: PTI)

Thousands of people were standing or sitting in line along the banks of the River Thames waiting their turn to file past the coffin and pay their respects. (Source: PTI)