Beirut Rebuilds

An overview of Beirut, Lebanon, which bounced back partly because of its location on the water. (VOA/V. Undritz)

Beirut buildings rise higher and higher as everyone struggles to get a sea view. (VOA/V. Undritz)

Building cranes punctuate Beirut's skyline. (VOA/V. Undritz)

Place de l’Etoile was once a sniper’s alley of ravaged buildings. The square has been painstaking reconstructed, including the French colonial clock tower. (VOA/V. Undritz)

Survivors sit in front of their tents near the site of the landslide that killed hundreds of people. Authorities are trying to help the 700 families displaced by the torrent of mud that swept through their village, in Badakhshan province, northeastern Afghanistan, May 6, 2014.

A decaying Ottoman-era house across a street from a well maintained one. (VOA/V. Undritz)

Construction cranes and a bombed out, egg-shaped movie theater near the blue domed Mohammad Al-Amin Mosque, which was completed in 2007. (VOA/V. Undritz)

The destruction of a French colonial government building from the 1920s during the civil war uncovered Roman baths from 2,000 years ago. (VOA/V. Undritz)

With the building frenzy reshaping Beirut, it takes a little looking to find the archaeological layer of the 1975-1990 Lebanese Civil War, only one generation ago. (VOA/V. Undritz)

The scarred hulk of the old Holiday Inn, with bushes sprouting out of the old Sky Bar, looms over downtown Beirut – a reminder of the 15-year civil war that ended in 1990. (VOA/V. Undritz)

A high end boutique near the old Holiday Inn, where the Lebanese Army parks armored personnel carriers. (VOA/V. Undritz)