Photos: Syria before civil war broke out

Tourists shop for paintings at an art store in Damascus, the Syrian capital. (AFP/Getty Images)

Aug. 29, 2013 4:11 PM PT

As recently as 2010, Syria’s Roman ruins, Crusader castles, Ottoman souks and sandy beaches appeared in travel magazines and were a huge tourist draw. The images emerging now could not be more different: rubble-strewn streets and rows of bodies wrapped in sheets. Here is a reminder of what life was like in Syria before civil war erupted.

Syrians and tourists walk at the Hamidiya Souk, or bazaar, in Damascus. (Hussein Malla / Associated Press)

A German tourist looks at the minaret of the 8th century Umayyad Mosque in Damascus. (Ghaith Abdul-Ahad / Getty Images)

In Aleppo, in northern Syria, a man buys sweets sold for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. (Bassem Tellawi / Associated Press)

A camel waits in the historic town of Palmyra during a festival. (Louai Beshara / AFP/Getty Images)

A tourist makes her way through a market in the Old City of Damascus. (Anwar Amro / AFP/Getty Images)

A shopkeeper waits for tourists in Damascus. (Louai Beshara / AFP/Getty Images)

Syria’s first casino, near the Damascus airport, opened without fanfare on Christmas Eve 2010. It was a bending of the rules in a secular country seeking to lure tourists but where gambling is banned out of respect for Islam. (Louai Beshara / AFP/Getty Images)