The Gigantic, Creaking, Groaning Water Wheels of Syria

1916

Creaking, Groaning Monsters That Liven a City in Syria

Hama, in Syria, says a writer in the Wide World Magazine, is famed for its huge water wheels, locally known as naura. There are four of them, and they are driven by the river Orontes, which flows through the town. Each of the wheels bears a distinguished name, and the visitor to the city is made aware of their presence long before be sees them by the creaking and groaning noise which greets his ear. At first it suggests a pipe organ and later a brass band practicing.

The wheels are built of a dark mahogany, which gives them at a distance the appearance of iron. The largest of them boasts of a diameter of seventy-five feet and is declared to be the biggest water wheel in existence. The naura are erected on what is known as the undershot principle — that is to say, they are driven by the water striking them at their base. They serve not only to supply the town with water, but also irrigate the adjacent gardens.

The wheels never stop, summer or winter, and day and night their creaking and groaning are heard. In the summer months small boys may always be seen bathing in the river in the neighborhood of the wheels, and for a small coin they will get in between the spokes of the wheels and allow themselves to be carried around many times or bang on the outside or the wheel and drop back into the water when halfway up.

—Stevens Point Daily Journal, Stevens Point, Wisconsin, July 29, 1916, page 7.