Why does my PHP appear to be commented out when I view it in the browser?

I am building a html page but want to break the header out so I dont have to keep changing all the files.

I am attempting to add a php.include file and save the pages out as .php files.

For some reason the header.php file is not showing in my file when i view it.

here is my code. Is this the correct way??

<!DOCTYPE html>

<html lang="en">

    <head>
    <meta charset="utf-8" />
    <title>Chartego | Creating Socially Inflential People with great images and videos</title>

    <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />

</head>
<body>

<?php include 'header.php'; ?>


  <div id="wrap-inner">
content
</div>

Solution

when i inspect the element using chrome the php seems to be commented out

The PHP is not passing through a PHP parser before getting to the browser, so the browser is receiving the PHP code instead of the server executing it.

Make sure that:

You are loading the page over HTTP (e.g. not just double clicking the file in your file manager)
The server you are using supports PHP
The server is configured to treat the file as PHP (this is usually done by giving it a .php file extension)