<P> The narrative opens by stating that as humans on Earth busied themselves with their own endeavours during the 1890s , aliens on Mars began plotting an invasion of Earth to replenish their limited resources . In 1899 the narrator is invited to an astronomical observatory at Ottershaw where explosions are seen on the surface of the planet Mars , creating much interest in the scientific community . Later , a `` meteor '' lands on Horsell Common , near the unnamed narrator 's home in Woking , Surrey . He is among the first to discover that the object is an artificial cylinder that opens , disgorging Martians who are `` big '' and `` greyish '' with `` oily brown skin '' , `` the size , perhaps , of a bear '' , each with `` two large dark - coloured eyes '' , and lipless `` V - shaped mouths '' which drip saliva and are surrounded by two `` Gorgon groups of tentacles '' . The narrator finds them `` at once vital , intense , inhuman , crippled and monstrous '' . They briefly emerge , have difficulty in coping with the Earth 's atmosphere and gravity , and rapidly retreat into their cylinder . A human deputation ( which includes the astronomer Ogilvy ) approaches the cylinder with a white flag , but the Martians incinerate them and others nearby with a heat - ray before beginning to assemble their machinery . Military forces arrive that night to surround the common , including Maxim guns . The population of Woking and the surrounding villages are reassured by the presence of the British Army . A tense day begins , with much anticipation of military action by the narrator . </P>
<P> The narrative opens by stating that as humans on Earth busied themselves with their own endeavours during the 1890s , aliens on Mars began plotting an invasion of Earth to replenish their limited resources . In 1899 the narrator is invited to an astronomical observatory at Ottershaw where explosions are seen on the surface of the planet Mars , creating much interest in the scientific community . Later , a `` meteor '' lands on Horsell Common , near the unnamed narrator 's home in Woking , Surrey . He is among the first to discover that the object is an artificial cylinder that opens , disgorging Martians who are `` big '' and `` greyish '' with `` oily brown skin '' , `` the size , perhaps , of a bear '' , each with `` two large dark - coloured eyes '' , and lipless `` V - shaped mouths '' which drip saliva and are surrounded by two `` Gorgon groups of tentacles '' . The narrator finds them `` at once vital , intense , inhuman , crippled and monstrous '' . They briefly emerge , have difficulty in coping with the Earth 's atmosphere and gravity , and rapidly retreat into their cylinder . A human deputation ( which includes the astronomer Ogilvy ) approaches the cylinder with a white flag , but the Martians incinerate them and others nearby with a heat - ray before beginning to assemble their machinery . Military forces arrive that night to surround the common , including Maxim guns . The population of Woking and the surrounding villages are reassured by the presence of the British Army . A tense day begins , with much anticipation of military action by the narrator . </P>
where did martians land in war of the worlds
where did martians land in war of the worlds
on Horsell Common , near the unnamed narrator 's home in Woking , Surrey
on Horsell Common , near the unnamed narrator 's home in Woking , Surrey