Edit, this is in responce to It is here in Egypt that the noria or Egyptian wheel became a common use.

the AMNH (natural history museum) has a sample one.. that is sealed inside an exhibit, but has a push button that powers it so you can see how it works.. (hall of African peoples)

they were designed to lift water 10 to 20 inches, (to life higher, they had series of them, lifting water up the terraced banks... for irriagation.. On the deep side (lower) the pots lips would be under water. as the came round, they hit an embankment, and were force to turn 90 degrees, and now spilled the water out, into a trough at a higher level. they were used before archimedites invented the water screw.