Water Wheel

This image began as a photo montage using several different photos I had taken of this old Moorish water wheel in Alcantarilla, Murcia, Spain. I... more

by Sarah Loft

Title

Water Wheel

Artist

Sarah Loft

Medium

Mixed Media

Description

This image began as a photo montage using several different photos I had taken of this old Moorish water wheel in Alcantarilla, Murcia, Spain. I painted the montage with watercolor pencils. An image of that work was digitally "painted" on the computer and a digital texture was also added.

Per Wikipedia: Human presence in Alcantarilla dates from prehistoric times. Iberian and Roman settlement remains have been found, including a beautiful vase of Greek origin that can be seen in Murcia's Archeological Museum. Since a road linking the former Carthago Nova, (today's Cartagena) with inland Hispanic towns crossed the town in Roman times, Roman presence seems to have been constant in the town for some centuries.

The first reference to the town in historical records is from the twelfth century, when the Muslim geographer Al-Idrisi writes about the town of Qantara Asqaba, between Murcia and the nearby Librilla, on the way to the province of Almería. "The nearest bridge" (translation of Qantara Asqaba) must have been the one that over the river Segura, some 400 meters up the river from the present bridge that links La Ñora and Puebla de Soto with Alcantarilla.

Alcantarilla soon became part of Al-Andalus. In the 8th century, nearly all the Iberian peninsula, which had been under Visigothic rule, was quickly conquered (711–718), by Muslims (the Moors), who had crossed over from North Africa, defeating the Visigoths. Visigothic Spain was the last of a series of Christian and pagan lands conquered in a great westward charge from the Middle East and across north Africa by the religiously inspired armies of the Umayyad empire.

During the centuries that the Muslim domination of southern and central Spain lasted, Alcantarilla was part of the Kingdom of Murcia, the latter caming into independent existence as a taifa centered on the Moorish city of Murcia after the fall of the Umayyad Caliphate of Córdoba (11th century). After the Battle of az-Zallaqah (also known as Battle of Sagrajas) in 1086 the Almoravid dynasty swallowed up the taifas and reunited Islamic Spain. With the Reconquista (Reconquest), the town came to be known as "Alcantariella" or "the small bridge".

The Rueda o Noria (Medieval water wheel) is a monument formed by the hydraulic remains belonging to a traditional control system which irrigated the orchards of Murcia. When the Arabs first came to the Iberian Peninsula, they found a primitive form of a Roman irrigation network. After making scientific studies of the land, they greatly improved this network, constructing many hydraulic arrangements for irrigating the whole of their domain. Rivers and wells were exploited and underground sources of water were discovered. Channels were cut, even in solid rock, dams built and the windmill introduced from the East. The water-wheel or "noria" (from the Arabic naura) was also brought from the eastern lands. With ingenious feats of engineering they provided water everywhere. The Region of Murcia was no exception and, around or on the Segura River there were several mills operational between the 13th and 15th centuries. The water wheel or "noria" (from the Arabic naura) of Alcantarilla, on the acequia Mayor de Alquibla or "Barreras" acequia, goes back to medieval times. The first modern wheel was built in 1457. This first wheel and subsequent ones were wooden but in the nineteenth century, an iron wheel was built. The present wheel is from 1956, based on the proportions of the previous one from 1890 (11 meters high, 1.90 m wide).

Note: The watermark will not appear on the print you purchase.

Featured in the Art from the Past group, March 2014.

Featured in the Beauty group, May 2014.

Featured in the ABC group, August 2014.

Uploaded

February 12th, 2011