Reminiscence from the Levant: Part Four – World is my Oyster

In the second year of Chemical Engineering, I had a subject called Fluid Dynamics… for a laymen…it was an enquiry into the physical laws governing the flow of liquid in a particular trajectory. Much of what we have achieved in this discipline can be attributed to a genius called Bernoulli… who propounded something called Bernoulli Equation from the principle of conservation of energy.

Imagine re-visiting Bernoulli Equation in the alien land of Syria.

Hamah is a small little town in Central Syria; along the banks of River Orontes… it has a huge history especially in the medieval ages when it was initially a part of Byzantine empire… then changed hands and came under Arabs… then under the Crusaders… then under the Mamluks and finally under the Ottomans… and because it was a riverside town… it held great importance for all of them… as an important source of civil supplies.

In recent times, though, it evokes unpleasant memories… In 1980's it was centre of a widespread revolt by Islamists, quelled by a brutal repression in which nearly 25000 people were killed. Some say the casuality was even more… However nobody in Hamah talks about it. I casually tried asking people something about it, often causing discomfort to them… but came across a collective denial of the events.

I stayed in a hotel run by a Palestinian called Abdullah, a wonderful host and an even wonderful businessman. Palestinians, I have realized, lay a huge importance on education… Most of the Palestinians I have met in life are much better educated that their Arab brethren… they are either white collar employees or are entrepreneurs in the field of service industry. People without nations, often discover new ways to survive and succeed… Abdullah had a Palestinian father and Syrian mother… he was born and brought up in Syria… and yet is not a Syrian citizen. He will never be… its really confounding that the countries that seem to yell atop the roofs for Palestinian rights, often give little more than a lip service when it comes to providing rights to Palestinian refugees in their countries…. Few months ago, I was speaking to a Palestinian lady, now a European citizen, about how she felt that their status was much better in Europe than in the "friendly Arab countries".

The most fascinating part of Hamah is seeing its Norias… the giant water wheels that were constructed in and around 12-13^th century AD to utilize the water of River Orontes for civic purposes…. These water wheels were used to lift water up to 20 metres and then through a series of overhead canals, were taken to various parts of the town… in the mosques, in the houses, in the parks and communal places… and were used to run mills and olive presses.

But the most fascinating part of the Norias… was that they were driven purely by the flow of water and had no external mechanical force to drive them. The process was simple… bifurcating the river water into a channel that progressively narrowed, thus forcing the water to flow faster and gain in kinetic energy… this kinetic energy is then used to move the water wheels.

The Norias of Hamah were constructed some 700 years ago, back then they were engineering marvels… they are more so today, for about a dozen odd Norias continue to function till date. Hamah can easily be called the town of Norias… The government has constructed beautiful parks around them and they have become a picnic spots for the people. It was a wonderful experience visiting them in the evening- with a lot of festivities around- among hundreds of locals, I was the only foreigner.

Earlier in the day, after returning from Saint Simeon, I visited the Aleppo citadel… it is huge by any standard… but the soul was missing… it’s a pity that such a marvelous place is so ill kept… I have seen very small castles in Cyprus… that have masked their insignificance by small museums, signboards and a plethora of information on life and times of the castle… in the Aleppo citadel there was none of it…. Nevertheless the views from atop the citadel are simply amazing… the entire city of Aleppo in all its magnificence is visible… one can see on one side the herald of the desert and its yellowish tinge on land… and on the other, the green of the fields in the north.

I strolled aimlessly on the streets of Aleppo… I came across a small park named after Gamal Abdul Nasser… echoing the days when Syria and Egypt formed the United Arab Republic… then there is a small museum just in front of the park, worth exploring if one has time… I was told much of Aleppo's treasure lies in Damascus Museum, though.

Thereafter, I packed my bag and walked towards the Bus Station… before reaching Syria, I was told that the Bus system in Syria is bad… but I found it to be good enough… strange thing was that in the Bus I was served complimentary water and snacks. An errand boy was helping all the passengers to keep their luggage and locate their seats… he was extra helpful to me… I thought he wanted some Baksheesh… after settling down, I offered him a coin of 5 Syrian Pound... he refused and said - you are a guest.

Aleppo… was the first city outside India, where I went without any refuge… without any acquaintance… and yet somewhere I felt, I knew everybody and everybody knew me…. It would be forever etched in my heart. It re-taught me something I knew and yet refused to believe… that for a traveler… World is his oyster