The war in Syria has been raging for years. Aleppo, once Syria’s largest city, has been among the worst hit in the country with the Battle of Aleppo having carried on since 2012.
Olympia Restaurant, based in Aleppo, has published photos from before the war paired with images taken at the same location after the fighting started. The contrast is heartbreaking. City squares that had fountains and palm trees have become uninhabitable with crumbling buildings and ruined roads surrounding them. Rubble and destruction is the common theme where once beautiful buildings have become hollow shells.
Locations that were listed as World Heritage Sites by UNESCO are now reduced to husks of their former beauty. Multiple images depict mosques and hotels that you now not only could not stay at, but can’t even walk through.
Dar Al-Ifta
The Hotel Carlton swimming pool is filled with debris rather than water and the entire city now has a colour palette of washed out concrete rather than the vibrant place bustling with life.
The once thriving metropolis has seen soldiers from both the government and rebel forces looting, burning and destroying buildings. Since the war in Syria began more than a quarter of a million Syrians have lost their lives in four-and-a-half years and 11 million have been forced from their homes.
To see more before and after photos you can visit the Olympia Restaurant Facebook page here.
Hotel Carlton
Images used with permission
DigitalRev 