The Zarafshon is a river in

Tajikistan Tajikistan, officially the Republic of Tajikistan, is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Dushanbe is the capital city, capital and most populous city. Tajikistan borders Afghanistan to the Afghanistan–Tajikistan border, south, Uzbekistan to ...

and

Uzbekistan , image_flag = Flag of Uzbekistan.svg , image_coat = Emblem of Uzbekistan.svg , symbol_type = Emblem of Uzbekistan, Emblem , national_anthem = "State Anthem of Uzbekistan, State Anthem of the Republ ...

Central Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...

. Its name, "spreader of gold" in Persian, refers to the presence of

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

-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 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 and the Zeravshan Range of the Pamir-Alay mountains meet, in

. In its upper course, upstream from its confluence with the Fan Darya, it is also called ''Matcha''. It flows due west for some , passing Panjakent before entering

at , where it turns west-to-north-west, flowing past the legendary city of

Samarkand Samarkand ( ; Uzbek language, Uzbek and Tajik language, Tajik: Самарқанд / Samarqand, ) is a city in southeastern Uzbekistan and among the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities in Central As ...

, where it feeds the Dargom Canal, which is entirely dependent on the

oasis In ecology, an oasis (; : oases ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environment Navoiy Navoiy ( ; ) is a city and the capital of Navoiy Region in the central part of Uzbekistan. Administratively, it is a district-level city, that includes the urban-type settlement Tinchlik, Navoiy, Tinchlik. The city is named after Alisher Navoiy. ...

and further to the south-west, passing

Bukhara Bukhara ( ) is the List of cities in Uzbekistan, seventh-largest city in Uzbekistan by population, with 280,187 residents . It is the capital of Bukhara Region. People have inhabited the region around Bukhara for at least five millennia, and t ...

before it is lost in the desert beyond the city of Qorakoʻl (Karakul), not quite reaching the

Amu Darya The Amu Darya ( ),() also shortened to Amu and historically known as the Oxus ( ), is a major river in Central Asia, which flows through Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Afghanistan. Rising in the Pamir Mountains, north of the Hindu Ku ...

, of which it was formerly a tributary.

Geographic position

See also

Notes

References

Further reading