EXPLORE SYRIA
حماة
Hama is a historic city on the Orontes River in west-central Syria. Its identity is closely connected to the river, its neighborhoods and markets, and especially the great wooden Norias that have become one of Syria’s most recognizable cultural landmarks.
For generations, Hama’s enormous wooden waterwheels lifted water from the Orontes into aqueducts that supplied gardens and agricultural land. The Norias remain a defining symbol of the city and are included on Syria’s UNESCO Tentative List.
Hama has been inhabited across many periods of Syrian history. Its location along the Orontes helped make it an important regional center linking communities, agriculture, commerce, and routes through the interior of the country.
The city’s character lives in its riverfront, markets, neighborhoods, cuisine, family traditions, religious sites, crafts, and the everyday memories of people who have called Hama home across generations.
Hama’s modern history includes periods of profound trauma and loss, but the city cannot be reduced to those events. Its people continue to preserve its identity, relationships, traditions, and connection to place inside Syria and throughout the diaspora.
