Can Iraq get its water wheels on UNESCO World Heritage List?
Local academics believe that water wheels, used all around the world, were discovered on the banks of the Euphrates River in Anbar province and should be on the World Heritage List.
Iraq has been working for the last three months to rehabilitate its historical norias in Hit, a city located in western Iraq on the banks of the upper Euphrates River. The Iraqi government aims to inscribe these water wheels, which played an important role in the irrigation of the land for centuries, on UNESCO's World Heritage List.
The water wheels of Hama in Syria, known as the "Norias of Hama," have been on UNESCO's tentative list — the earliest stage of inscription to the heritage list — since 1999.
Though norias, or water wheels pulled by livestock or the force of the water itself to transmit water from wells or rivers to irrigate the fields, can be seen around the world, their birth place is Iraq, claims Qahtan Mohammad Saleh al-Hiti, who teaches at Al-Ma’arif College in Ramadi, Anbar province.
Hiti, who has carried out extensive research on the history of Hit and its water wheels, told Al-Monitor that some early form of these wheels were discovered by the residents of the city of Hit, whose foundation dates back to 2300 B.C.
