Hama

Hama is an old Lanthinari city, but it has recently risen to prominance, and exploded in size. A settlement, temple, and bridge have existed at the Hama narrows in the Nasun River for over a thousand years, but the invention of the waterwheel propelled this city into greatness. The area, with it's deep, swift current is ideal for driving waterwheels, and the waterwheels of Hama drive its fourishing industry.

The most prominant feature of Hama is its two great noria, which lift water into an aquaduct that eventually flows into a canal that brings water inland quite a distance toward Om Amarna. The noria are on the eastern side of the river, and consequently, so is the majority of the city.

The city is dominated by the sound of water falling, spraying like a rain storm in parched Lenthinar. The city has a constant haze of pleasant mist, and gardens and greenery abound as nowhere else in Lenthinar.

The soaring noria actually shed a large excess of water as they propel themselves upward; far more than a normal waterwheel, since their main cargo cannot stay bucketed to help the wheel continue down. Beneath this constant shower, the people of Hama have a public bath. Grilles surrounding seperate areas for each gender allow air and mist to flow, while keeping patron's privacy. The changing area is surrounded by billowing silken curtains. The baths are blocked from view of the bridge by the aquaduct.

The city is laced with small canals for the speedy transport of goods, but these canal ways are usually blocked off at the river, so as not to divert the power of the flowes. Only the frequency of shipping keeps the canals from becoming stagnant.

Just north of Hama is the Isle of Kifi, which contains the most accurate nasunometer available, and which the Hamanites watch nearly as closely as they watch the levels of their floating waterwheels. Their livlihoods depend heavily on the water level of the Nasun; in some ways even more than the farmers' do.

Most of the city is built above the flood line, so walls and short cliffs of native stone rise out of the river. This stone is what keeps the river in its narrow path at this point. The only area not lifted out of the water is the beach on the west side of the bridge, where the curve of the river lets the water flow more gently, and some of the poorer Hamanites beach their crafts.