(CNN) It's one thing to see the charred destruction that raging wildfires left this week in the eastern Tennessee resort town of Gatlinburg, but quite another to see it side by side with pictures of what those same areas once looked like.

Here is a sampling of Gatlinburg from the air. Drag the slider across each image to see how the areas appeared before and after the firestorm:

The set above shows businesses on either side of one of Gatlinburg's main arteries. The "before" image was taken from Google Earth; the second was taken Tuesday by an Associated Press photographer from a National Guard helicopter.

These photos show the Westgate Smoky Mountain Resort & Spa. The older image comes from Google Earth; the recent one was taken by the Knoxville News Sentinel on Tuesday and distributed through The Associated Press.

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