The Zeravshan; uz, Zeravshon, Зеравшон, زېرەۋشان; from
Persian fa, , Zarâfšân – meaning "the spreader of gold" is a river in
Tajikistan
Tajikistan (, ; tg, Тоҷикистон, Tojikiston; russian: Таджикистан, Tadzhikistan), officially the Republic of Tajikistan ( tg, Ҷумҳурии Тоҷикистон, Jumhurii Tojikiston), is a landlocked country in Centr ...
and
Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan (, ; uz, Ozbekiston, italic=yes / , ; russian: Узбекистан), officially the Republic of Uzbekistan ( uz, Ozbekiston Respublikasi, italic=yes / ; russian: Республика Узбекистан), is a doubly landlocked co ...
,
Central Asia
Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes the fo ...
. Its name, "spreader of gold" in
Persian, refers to the presence of
gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile ...
-bearing sands in the upper reaches of the river. To the ancient Greeks it was known as the ''Polytimetus''. It was also formerly known as ''
Sughd
Sughd Province ( tg, Вилояти Суғд, Viloyati Sughd, Sogdia Region , fa, ولایت سغد) is one of the four administrative divisions and one of the three provinces ( tg, вилоятҳо, viloyatho , fa, ولایت) that make up ...
River''. The river is long and has a basin area of .
Geographic position
It rises at the
Zeravshan Glacier, close to where the
Turkestan Range
One of the northern extensions of the Pamir-Alay system, the Turkestan Range (russian: Туркестанский хребет; ky, Түркстан кырка тоосу; uz, Туркистон тизмаси, Turkiston tizmasi; tg, Қатор ...
and the
Zeravshan Range of the
Pamir-Alay
The Pamir-Alay (also ''Pamiro-Alay'', russian: Памиро-Алай) is a mountain system in Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, encompassing four main mountain ranges extending west from the Tian Shan Mountains, and located north of the main ...
mountains meet, in
Tajikistan
Tajikistan (, ; tg, Тоҷикистон, Tojikiston; russian: Таджикистан, Tadzhikistan), officially the Republic of Tajikistan ( tg, Ҷумҳурии Тоҷикистон, Jumhurii Tojikiston), is a landlocked country in Centr ...
. In its upper course, upstream from its confluence with the
Fan Darya
The Fan Darya (russian: Фандарья) is a river in Ayni District of Sughd Region, Tajikistan. The Fan Darya is long (140 km including its source river Yaghnob), and the area of its drainage basin is . It is a major left tributary of th ...
, it is also called ''Matcha''.
It flows due west for some , passing
Panjakent before entering
Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan (, ; uz, Ozbekiston, italic=yes / , ; russian: Узбекистан), officially the Republic of Uzbekistan ( uz, Ozbekiston Respublikasi, italic=yes / ; russian: Республика Узбекистан), is a doubly landlocked co ...
at , where it turns west-to-north-west, flowing past the legendary city of
Samarkand
fa, سمرقند
, native_name_lang =
, settlement_type = City
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from the top:Registan square, Shah-i-Zinda necropolis, Bibi-Khanym Mosque, view inside Shah-i-Zinda, ...
, where it feeds the
Dargom Canal, which is entirely dependent on the
oasis
In ecology, an oasis (; ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environment'ksar''with its surrounding feeding source, the palm grove, within a relational and circulatory nomadic system.”
The location of oases has been of critical imp ...
thus created, until it bends left again to the west north of
Navoiy and further to the south-west, passing
Bukhara
Bukhara ( Uzbek: /, ; tg, Бухоро, ) is the seventh-largest city in Uzbekistan, with a population of 280,187 , and the capital of Bukhara Region.
People have inhabited the region around Bukhara for at least five millennia, and the city ...
before it is lost in the desert beyond the city of
Qorakoʻl (Karakul), not quite reaching the
Amu Darya
The Amu Darya, tk, Amyderýa/ uz, Amudaryo// tg, Амударё, Amudaryo ps, , tr, Ceyhun / Amu Derya grc, Ὦξος, Ôxos (also called the Amu, Amo River and historically known by its Latin name or Greek ) is a major river in Central Asi ...
, of which it was formerly a tributary.
Related news
Tajikistan aims to construct several
hydro-electric power stations on Zerafshan River and has signed the MOU in November 2013 with Zarvon Corporation for the financing and construction of the plants. All previous MOU's have been voided.
See also
*
Zarafshon
Zarafshon ( uz, Zarafshon / Зарафшон, fa, زرافشان) is a city in the center of Uzbekistan's Navoiy Region. Administratively, it is a district-level city, that includes the urban-type settlement Muruntau. It has an area of and it ...
, a city in Uzbekistan's
Navoiy Region
Navoiy Region ( uz, Навоий вилояти, Navoiy viloyati, russian: Навоийская область) is one of the regions of Uzbekistan. It is located in the central north/northwest of the country. It covers an area of (a large part ...
, called "the gold capital of Uzbekistan".
*
Zarafshan (disambiguation)
Notes
References
*
Further reading
*
В.В. Бартольд "К Истории Орошения в Туркестане" (Collected Works, Vol.3) (Москва) 1965
*
V.V. Barthold "Turkestan Down to the Mongol Invasion" (London) 1968
* Robert Lewis "Early Irrigation in West Turkestan" ''Annals of the Association of American Geographers'' Vol.56 No..3 (Sept. 1966) pp467–491
*
Edgar Knobloch "Beyond the Oxus" (London) 1972
Rivers of Tajikistan
Rivers of Uzbekistan
International rivers of Asia
Persian words and phrases
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