[[Image:persianWheel.jpg|thumb|right|200px250px|Persian wheel. Drawing: FAO]]
[[Image:noria.jpg|thumb|right|200px250px|Noria. Drawing: FAO]]
An obvious improvement to the simple rope and bucket is to fit numerous small buckets around the periphery of an endless belt to form a continuous bucket elevator. The original version of this, which is ancient in origin but still widely used, was known as a "Persian wheel"; the earliest forms consisted of earthenware pots roped in a chain which is hung over a drive wheel. The water powered "noria", a water wheel with pots, buckets or hollow bamboo containers set around its rim, is similar in principle except the containers are physically attached to the drive wheel circumference rather than to an endless belt suspended from it.
'''Improved Persian wheel, (Zawaffa or Jhallar)'''<br>
[[Image:modified persian wheel.jpg|thumb|right|200px250px|Zawaffa type Persian wheel, a modified version. (side wall shown partially removed). Drawing: FAO.]]
Traditional wooden Persian wheels were fitted with earthenware water containers, but a variety of all-metal improved Persian wheels have been built, some as commercial products, in China, India, Pakistan and Egypt. Metal Persian wheels can be made smaller in diameter, which reduces the extra height the water needs to be lifted before it is tipped out of the containers, and also reduces the well diameter that is necessary.
