Orontes River and Agricultural Valley
Explore the fertile Orontes River valley around Homs, the agricultural heartland of central Syria where ancient water management systems, Roman bridges, and traditional farming villages line the river that has sustained civilization here for thousands of years.
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Orontes River
See the Orontes River, the only major Syrian river flowing northward into Turkey before reaching the Mediterranean, the ancient waterway that made the Homs region fertile and supported the great cities of Homs, Hama, and Apamea along its banks.
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Ancient Norias
Visit the ancient water wheels of the Orontes, the great wooden norias that lifted river water to the irrigation channels of the agricultural hinterland, the medieval engineering that expanded cultivation in this Syrian river valley for centuries.
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Roman Bridge
Cross one of the ancient Roman bridges over the Orontes where the stone engineering of the 2nd century CE still serves traffic in the 21st, the Roman infrastructure built for a heavily populated agricultural province surviving through all the subsequent civilizations.
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Agricultural Villages
Visit the traditional Syrian agricultural villages of the Orontes valley where the wheat fields, olive groves, and traditional village architecture represent the settled agricultural society that has occupied this fertile valley since the Bronze Age.
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Hama Norias
Continue to Hama to see the famous norias of Hama, the giant wooden water wheels up to 20 meters in diameter that have been lifting Orontes water to the city aqueducts since the medieval period, their groaning turning audible throughout the city center.
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Valley Panorama
View the Orontes valley from a hilltop where the green ribbon of the river valley cuts through the drier Syrian landscape, understanding the agricultural importance of this waterway that made central Syria one of the most productive regions of the ancient world.