Hama is a city which has flourished continually since ancient times and has known the successive civilizations of the fertile crescent. At one time “Hamath” was among the main Aramean kingdoms. Allied with her neighbors she warred against the Assyrians and halted Samalnassar’s troops in 853 BC. After 200 BC. the Seleucids renamed the city Epiphamia and the city became a center of Roman and Byzantine administration until conquered by the Arabs in 636-7. The control of the city has historically been contested by Aleppo and Damascus because of her important location between northern and southern Syria. The Ayoubid period was the city’s most prosperous period and witnessed the construction of the first of the city’s norias (water wheels).

There are 17 norias in Hama today. The wheels were designed to raise the water from the Orontes river. Hama specialized in water wheels, which were first developed in Byzantine times.

Another mosque that is worth visiting is Al Nuri, with its little ribbed domes, over which rises a fine square minaret. The bands of darker stone half-way up give it its typically Syrian character. The twelfth century minbar (pulpit) inside in the prayer hall is another fine example of the taste and skill of the craftsmen of Hama; it is made from rare woods finely carved in geometric patterns. There are three inscriptions worth noting, on the outside wall: the first, in Greek, praises the bravery of the inhabitants in the face of the Roman invaders. The second, framed within a finely sculpted border, records, in Arabic, the name of the builder of the mosque, Sultan Nur Al-Din Zanki, and the date of its construction, the 558^th year of the Hegira (1129) and, the third, also in Arabic, notes that students used to gather here to work and that their expenses were paid by the municipality.

The city also boasts the Great Mosque marked by an elegant octagonal minaret with a double lantern and a wooden balcony. This mosque was built on the site of a Roman temple later occupied by a Byzantine Church. It contains the mausoleum of two princes of Hama who reigned at the end of the thirteenth century.

This splendid building was the residence of the governor Asaad Pasha Al Azem who ruled the town from 1700 until 1742. The palace has been converted into a national museum. The museum houses ancient sculptures and displays of coins, glassware and weapons. On the first floor of the palace the displays show the evidence of the refinement and splendor of Al-Azem’s life.

Two khans, the Asaad Pasha Al Azem and the Rustom Pasha figure among the many attractions of Hama.