这是{} php语法吗?

I looked to a php tutorial from 2010 and I found that where I suppose to see <?php bla bla ?> I see something like this:

<meta name="description" content="{metadescription}" /> 
<meta name="keywords" content="{metakeywords}" /> 

Is this an old php syntax. I assumed that metadescription is a variable and you have to do something like this:

<?php echo $metadescription ?>

Please someone give me an idea what is happening.

This is smarty syntax. It is a php template engine used to separate the view. Please refer http://www.smarty.net/ for more info