Noria

middle east

Athea Marie I.
Cabañez
 WHAT IS
A
NORIA
?
The word "Noria" comes from the Arabic term, ‫ نــاـعـورـة‬, nā‘ūra,
meaning "the first water machine."

• It was the earliest mechanical device propelled by means

other than man or animal.

• It is a machine for lifting water into a small aqueduct, either

for the purpose of irrigation or, in at least one known
instance, to feed seawater into a saltern.

• The Arabs applied the principles of Hero in improving the

Roman watermill and utilized it extensively for irrigation in
every part of the Muslim world.
The norias of Hama on the Orontes River in
Syria
 Functions
Unlike the water wheels found in mills, a Noria does not provide mechanical
power to any other process. Its concept is similar to the modern hydraulic
ram, which also uses the power of flowing water to pump some of the water
out of the river.

• A few Norias were hybrids, consisting of an animal-driven waterwheel.

• A Noria can raise water to somewhat less than its full height. The largest
Noria in the world, with a diameter of about 20 meters, is located in the
Syrian city of Hama.

• It performs a similar function to the saqiya, and other pumps, that of

moving water from a lower elevation to a higher elevation, but these are
generally powered by other means, not by a waterwheel.
 HISTO Islamic Agricultural
Revolution
During the Islamic Agricultural

RY
Revolution, norias became more
widespread and were in large-
It has been suggested that the cakkavattaka scale use in the medieval Islamic
mentioned in an Indian text of c. 350 BC was a noria, world, where Muslim inventors
but others dispute this. and engineers made a number of
improvements to the Noria.
This device was most likely invented in the ancient Near
East, where it was used since c. 200 BC. The In 1206, Al-Jazari introduced the use
undershot and overshot waterwheel, both animal and
A HUGE WHEEL LIFTS WATER FOR IRRIGATION
of the crankshaft in a Noria and
This device is one several driven by the river current at

water-driven, and with either a compartmented body

Hama, Syria, with a groaning and creaking that can be
heard for miles. The containers onits rim empty at the
saqiya, and the concept of
summit into an elevated aqueduct, many centuries old,

or a compartmented rim, were invented in Egypt

that carries a precious stream to outlying fields.
minimizing intermittent working
between the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC. Around c. 300 was implied for the purpose of
AD, the wooden compartments were replaced with maximising their efficiency.
separate, attached ceramic pots that were tied to the
outside of an open-framed wheel, thereby creating the
Noria.

Hama, Syria - a Noria at the town's park.

Noria today
The Noria was an inevitable invention that sparked the development of
countless types of hydraulic and rotating machines. Over the centuries,
it has allowed civilizations to nourish their villages and crops with
water, the most fundamental of resources. In time, this triggered the
beginning of a new era - the turning of arid lands into prosperous
empires.

Today, various types of machines are referred to as Norias, with differences

in structure, power sources and purpose. Some apply the term Noria to refer
only to water wheels used to elevate water powered by the flow of a river.
Others use the term for a variety of water-lifting wheels or devices, whether
it is rotated by animal, man power or river, including those that function as
pulleys with buckets attached to chains or ropes used for obtaining water
from a well where the water table is low.
Noria Corp
or
this early a ation is named after
nd most-es
s ential w at
wheel mac er
hine.