Noréas de Hama
Noréas de Hama is part of the Tentative list of Syria in order to qualify for inclusion in the World Heritage List.
The Norea of Hama are hydropowered wooden wheels to lift water from the river Orontes into an aqueduct for further distribution. 17 of them remain, dating from the 13th-14th centuries. They were used for irrigation but now mostly serve an aesthetic purpose.
Map of Noréas de Hama
Load mapThe coordinates shown for all tentative sites were produced as a community effort. They are not official and may change on inscription.
Community Reviews
Persian Globetrotter
In March 2020 I visited Hama on the way to Aleppo, there are seventeen Wheels in Hama, I was able to visit the most central ones in the main squarethe Norias are centuries old and have survived many wars including the last one. They are admirable to see, the people of Hama go to spend time and have picnics and smoke Sisha around them. If UNESCO inscribed the Hama Waterwheels, they would have greater conservation and protection.
Read more from Persian Globetrotter here.
Michael Novins
In May 2009, the Baron Hotel in Aleppo organized a car and driver to take me and another guest on a day tour to visit Serjilla and Al-Bara, two of the Dead Cities, and Apamea. Since the other guest was continuing to Hama, we visited a few of the remaining 17 original norias (water wheels) before I returned to Aleppo.
The norias move water from a lower to a higher elevation and do not provide mechanical power to any other process, unlike the water wheels at mills.
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Site Info
- Full Name
- Noréas de Hama
- Country
- Syria
- Added
- 1999
- Type
- Cultural
- Categories
- Structure - Civic and Public Works
- Link
- By ID
Site History
1999 Added to Tentative List
Site Links
Visitors
20 Community Members have visited.