Norias from Hama

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Norias on the banks of the Orontes.

The Norias of Hama ( Arabic نواعير حماة, DMG Nawāʿīr Ḥamāh ) are a series of water paddles on the Orontes in the Syrian city ​​of Hama . With a diameter of up to 27 meters, they are the largest of their kind in the world.

history

The Noria al-Muhammadiyah , 1913.

The oldest evidence of the existence of the water wheels is on a mosaic that was uncovered in the columned street of the city of Apamea (55 kilometers north of Hama) and dates back to 469 BC. During the high civilization of the Arameans . The ornament is currently in the Hama National Museum . The earliest written mention goes back to the Roman emperor Elagabal , who reported in the early 3rd century AD about a Noria in Apamea that watered the gardens there. The oldest of the norias that still exist today can be traced back to the 11th to 12th centuries AD ( Ayyubid dynasty ).

The largest noria, the Noria al-Muhammadiyah , has a total diameter of 27 meters and was built in 1361 at the behest of the then governor of Hama. It is located west of the citadel (قلعة حماة).

At the beginning of the 20th century there were a total of 105 norias in Hama and the surrounding area. Today only 40 remain, of which a total of 17 are located in Hama itself and are still in operation. With the introduction of water pumps, the Norias lost their importance over time and were ultimately operated and maintained exclusively as a tourist attraction.

In June 1999, Syria entered the Hama norias on the national tentative list .

The upper part of the wooden wheel of the Noria Gaabariyya in Hama was burned by an unknown group on August 8, 2014 in the course of fighting during the Syrian civil war , the stone base remained intact.

Construction

Noria with a stone base, on the left an aqueduct.

The norias in Hama have a structure that is unique in the world. Depending on the individual function of the component, they were made from walnut, apricot, mulberry, poplar and pine wood. The axles are made of walnut, for example, as this is sufficiently stable. These are attached to wooden steles that lie on a stone support. Water tanks are attached to the outer edge of the wheels.

function

The Norias drew river water from the Orontes in basins and aqueducts , which led the water mainly into surrounding fields and thus served to irrigate agricultural areas. At the same time they served to supply the city with water. Their operation was necessary because the Orontes river bed is up to 70 meters lower than the surrounding fields.

Web links

Commons : Norias of Hama  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Abdellazar Zarzouq: The Noria: a typical irrigation system of the Hama region . In: Syria - cradle of culture . Verlag Philipp von Zabern, 1999, ISBN 978-3-8053-2613-1 , p. 142 .
  2. ^ Adriana de Miranda: Water Architecture in the Lands of Syria: The Water-wheels (=  Studia Archaeologica . No. 156 ). L'Erma di Bretschneider, 2007, ISBN 978-88-8265-433-7 , pp. 79 .
  3. ↑ UNESCO World Heritage Center: Noréas de Hama. In: unesco.org. Retrieved June 6, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Norias of Hama. In: unesco.org. Retrieved June 6, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Johannes Odenthal: Syria . DuMont Buchverlag, Cologne 1982, ISBN 978-3-7701-1337-8 , p. 153 f .
  6. ↑ Ute Bardorf, Willi Bardorf: Syria, Jordan: travel guide . 6th edition. Munich February 1996, p. 180 .