Hama

In the middle of Syria, between Homs and Aleppo, on both banks of the Orontes. What defines the city is the river and the wooden wheels standing in it: the norias. They lift water into the aqueducts and groan as they turn — that sound is Hama.

Where to start

At the riverbank. The largest wheels stand on the central stretch; the walkway passes both of them and carries on along the aqueduct. Then the Azm Palace, a governor’s mansion built in the eighteenth century, in the period before the Azm family moved on to Damascus.

In the city

Most of the old quarters were destroyed in 1982 and new building stands where that fabric was. What you see in the centre is therefore not an unbroken old city like those of Damascus and Aleppo; what remains is the river line and individual monuments.

Around it

To the northwest lies Apamea, a Hellenistic city with a colonnaded street close to two kilometres long. To the northeast, out in the steppe, are the banded brick and basalt buildings of Qasr Ibn Wardan. To the west, at the foot of the mountains, Masyaf Castle. All three are done from Hama and back.

When to go

April–May and September–October. Whether the wheels turn depends on the flow: when the river drops some of them stand still, and that is usually late summer.

Getting there

45 kilometres north of Homs and about 210 kilometres north of Damascus on the M5; about 150 kilometres south of Aleppo.