Mogadishu as it once was

Many years ago, before successive bouts of civil war turned Somalia’s capital to bullet-pocked rubble, Mogadishu was a beautiful place.

Visitors can still see echoes of that long-gone splendor in the curving facades of eviscerated buildings or the delicate stonework on an orphaned wall, but for the most part it is a city of destruction.

Foreign Policy has done a good job of compiling some old sepia-tinged postcards and photographs from Mogadishu’s glory days. It’s a rare insight into a time before war in Somalia.

More from GlobalPost: Photos: Battle for Mogadishu