Noria al-Muhammadiyya, Hama

The Noria al-Muhammadiyya is the older of the two giant waterwheels on the Orontes in Hama. It is 21 metres across and carries 120 buckets. The inscription on its aqueduct gives the date 763 AH, which is 1361, so the wheel is Mamluk — from the period when the sultans in Cairo ruled Syria. Its job was to lift water for the Great Mosque in the middle of the city.

Where it is

The 19 norias inside the city stand in five groups. Al-Muhammadiyya belongs to the Bab al-Nahr group, where it still stands next to the Qaq wheel. From a distance the wheels look alike, so the quickest way to find it is to ask for it by name along the bank.

Why it is so large

The wheel fed an aqueduct, and the aqueduct carried the water about a kilometre to the Great Mosque. On the way it also supplied a bathhouse, fountains, houses and gardens. To turn that much weight, the builders ran an unusually long weir into the river at a very narrow angle, gathering the current at the foot of the wheel. The weir shows up even on satellite images.

The record and the listing

For about 500 years it was the tallest waterwheel in the world. The Laxey Wheel on the Isle of Man took the record in 1854, at a little over 22 metres. In 2006 the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) named it a Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark.

After the war

Hama’s norias were damaged during the war in Syria. One was burned on purpose in 2014, and others were taken apart for timber. In mid-2020 The Arab Weekly reported that craftsmen had repaired al-Muhammadiyya. Whether it is turning depends on the season and the level of the river.

What most people miss

The weir. Most visitors look at the wheel and never ask where the water comes from. Look at the river just in front of it: that is where the long stone weir begins, steering the current to the base of the wheel.