Westminster Abbey is famous for its many tombs and memorials. Ranging in date from the eleventh to the twenty-first centuries and displaying a corresponding variety of artistic styles they form the most important single collection of monumental sculpture in the country. There are around 600 monuments and memorial statues together with many gravestones and commemorative floor slabs, though these represent only a small proportion of the 3,300 people who are actually buried in the church and its cloisters. As well as the shrine of St Edward the Confessor, the tombs of kings and queens, and important military memorials, the Abbey has been for several centuries the place where the nation commemorates those who have achieved greatness in many different walks of life, including literature, science, music, religion and politics.