Description: Situated at the foot of mount Qassiun which overlooks Damascus. Building in this area started in the eleventh century to accommodate refugees arriving from Jerusalem following the Crusader occupation of the city. Here you find numerous old schools and hospitals, as well as mosques and the shrines of prominent Muslim thinkers and Sufi leaders such as Muhieddin Ibn Arabi and Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi. In the Muhieddin district, a colossal wooden noria was erected in the thirteenth century, based on a design made by al-Jazri, the leading mechanic of his time. It lifted water from the river Yazid to a height of 12 metres to supply al-Qaimarieh Hospital at al-Salhieh. It is the only one remaining of a great many norias that were scattered all over the district. There is still an alley called the Noria Alley.