Plate from 18th century encyclopedia showing an illustration of a Persian Wheel, or Sakia. A sakia is a water wheel, somewhat similar to a noria, and used primarily in Egypt. It is a large hollow wheel with scoops or buckets at the periphery. Its unique characteristic is that water is dispensed near the hub rather than from the top. An animal driven sakia can pump up water from 10 metres depth, and is thus considerably more efficient than a shadoof which can only pump water from 3 metres.