Once the center of Beirut's vibrant cultural scene in the 1970's, the Downtown area pulled a 180-degree turn in the 1980's, instead becoming a war-torn epicenter of the country's civil war where Lebanon's numerous sectarian factions battled it out. When the civil war ended in 1991, the government undertook a massive rebuilding effort that revitalized downtown, giving it its perhaps too squeaky-clean image. With the erection of nearby Hezbollah tent camps in 2006, the area was strangled once again, but as a sign of the Lebanese people's resiliency, upon the removal of the tent camps this week, downtown seemed to be returning to its former days of glory.