Water Wheels of Syria
I have a 1978 Syrian Republic banknote in my collection, worth one Syrian pound, depicting two enormous water wheels.
They are located near the city of Hama in central Syria and to this day, anyone can see the operation of this amazing ancient structure – enormous twin wooden wheels located on the El-Asi River.
These majestic structures are called norias, and they are among the oldest surviving hydraulic systems in the world.
Norias are water wheels that have been used for centuries to lift water from rivers and distribute it to fields, gardens and urban infrastructure such as baths, pools, and fountains. The first norias appeared in Ancient Egypt, presumably as early as the 4th century BC. Archaeological finds in the large oasis of El Fayum, located 80 kilometers southeast of Cairo, confirm the existence of water wheels as early as the 3rd century BC. Second-century BC frescoes discovered in Alexandria, Egypt, depict a segmented water wheel, and written sources mention the use of such devices during the reign of Pharaoh Ptolemy IV (late 3rd century BC).
Several centuries later, this technology was adopted by the ancient Romans, who around 300 CE added an important design change – replacing wooden ladles with individual ceramic vessels attached to the rim of the wheel. In the 11th century, the Muslim scholar Ibn Bassal from Andalusia first used a flywheel in norias to ensure more uniform rotation. In the early 13th century, the mechanic and inventor al-Jazari added a crank mechanism to the noria design to improve its efficiency.
This is evidenced by mosaics and tiles depicting norias found in the ancient city of Apamea, located 55 kilometers from Hama. The design of the norias in these depictions is virtually identical to those seen today in Hama. The height of the banks of the El-Asi River, on which the city stands, required mechanics to increase the norias’ design to gigantic proportions to raise water to the required height.
The principle of a noria is quite simple. A wheel, installed on the riverbank, is driven by the force of the river current. Buckets or special containers are attached to the wheel’s rim; these scoop up water as they plunge into the river and empty it into the aqueduct when they reach the top of their rotation.
The largest noria wheels in Hama have their own names and reach truly impressive sizes. The Al-Muhammadiyah noria, depicted on a Syrian banknote and built in 1361, has a diameter of 21 metres, and a full rotation takes about a minute. It has 120 water collection chambers attached to its rim. At one time, this noria supplied water to public baths, fountains, gardens and other city facilities, and is now a functioning historical monument, serving a life-size aesthetic purpose. For nearly 500 years, the Al-Muhammadiyah noria was considered the tallest water wheel in the world.
During the Middle Ages, three dozen similar norias were in operation in Hama. In the 1930s, there were still 20 operating water wheels in the city, and 14 of them remain today. These ancient devices continued to be actively used until the 1950s, when they were gradually replaced by modern pumps powered by gasoline and diesel engines.
Today, Hama’s norias are no longer used for water supply but they remain an important historical monument, testifying to the development of engineering in medieval Muslim society.
