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.