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.

Plan to Irrigate Basin of the Nile

1920

Egypt to Benefit From Project Costing Millions

For many years projects have been under consideration for obtaining such a complete control of the waters of the upper Nile as will enable Egypt to develop its agricultural resources to the utmost and to secure the country against the dangers of excessive floods, while permitting the Sudan also to develop to some extent its own vast resources.

The works contemplated will extend over a generation and involve the expenditure of tens of millions of dollars, affecting the entire future of irrigation throughout the Nile basin.

The commission, it is reported, will consist of three members. An irrigation engineer nominated by the government of India as president and a British physicist nominated by the University of Cambridge, while to draw on the wide experience available in America on questions of irrigation and water supply, and still further to strengthen the independence of the commission an irrigation engineer nominated by the Government of the United States will constitute the third member.

--The Saturday Blade, Chicago, March 27, 1920, page 7.