Overview
Al-naoor is a wooden wheel that rotates on its axis. It is used on the streams of the Euphrates River in Iraq, where water levels are lower than the adjacent fields. In order to raise the river water to the fields, the communities devised the al-naoor wheel. The wheel is made of twenty-four columns of wooden sticks and twenty-four clay jugs attached to the outer circumference with palm leaf ropes. Ranging between eight and twelve metres in diameter, the wheel is installed vertically between two stone pedestals on the streams of the river. As the current causes the wheel to rotate, the jugs collect the water from the river, carry the water to the top of the wheel, and pour it into the waterways leading to the fields. The day of the al-naoor mounting is marked by celebrations, including traditional poetry performances, singing and dancing. More recently, the energy produced by the...
This record is imported from the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage public dataset as discovery metadata. ARED has not independently verified community authority, access protocols or local naming beyond the source record.
Community and Authority
- Communities
- Iraq
- Languages
- Not specified in UNESCO dataset
- Cultural territories
- Iraq
- Countries
- Iraq
How the System Works
Al-naoor is a wooden wheel that rotates on its axis. It is used on the streams of the Euphrates River in Iraq, where water levels are lower than the adjacent fields. In order to raise the river water to the fields, the communities devised the al-naoor wheel. The wheel is made of twenty-four columns of wooden sticks and twenty-four clay...
Sources and Evidence
Imported from UNESCO DataHub dataset ich001. Field-level provenance is retained in the record metadata.
Field-Level Provenance
- title
- UNESCO DataHub field title_en
- preferredTitle
- UNESCO DataHub field title_fr
- summary
- UNESCO DataHub field description_en
- type
- UNESCO DataHub fields type_of_element_en and type_acronym
- countries
- UNESCO DataHub field countries, ISO codes resolved with ISO-3166 regional metadata
- categories
- ARED category inference from UNESCO concepts_primary_names, concepts_secondary_names and title
- relationships
- UNESCO concepts_primary_names, concepts_secondary_names, type fields and World Heritage links
- sourceUrl
- UNESCO DataHub field http_url_en
- rights
- UNESCO DataHub dataset metadata license and license_url
Original Source Metadata
Why This Record Is Credible
This public record is connected to 1 source and has been labelled Source Supported. ARED separates evidence sources from cultural authority so users can see both provenance and review limits.
Cultural Access
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Relationships
Review and Corrections
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