The Rakshan River () rises at the Nidoki pass, south-west of Shireza, district Washuk,

Balochistan Balochistan ( ; , ), also spelled as Baluchistan or Baluchestan, is a historical region in West and South Asia, located in the Iranian plateau's far southeast and bordering the Indian Plate and the Arabian Sea coastline. This arid region o ...

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

Geography

It is known there as Nag river and runs south-westward. It unites with the lop stream at a point to west of Nag-e-Kalat. It then flows west-south-west through the centre of the long valley which in its centre contains Panjgur city,

Makran Makran (), also mentioned in some sources as ''Mecran'' and ''Mokrān'', is the southern coastal region of Balochistan. It is a semi-desert coastal strip in the Balochistan province in Pakistan and in Iran, along the coast of the Gulf of Oman. I ...

. Parallel with the river also run the

Siahan Range The Siahan Range is a mountain range in the central part of Balochistan (Pakistan), Balochistan Province of southwestern Pakistan. The Siahan Range is primarily made up of limestone and sandstone and was formed when the north western Indian Plat ...

in the north and the Zangi Lak hills in the south. At its start, the Rakshan possesses little or no water, however, in Panjgur it expands into a series of bright clear pools (kor joh) connected with each other by small water channels running over a pebbly bed. The banks here are bordered with numerous

date palm ''Phoenix dactylifera'', commonly known as the date palm, is a flowering-plant species in the palm family Arecaceae, cultivated for its edible sweet #Fruits, fruit called dates. The species is widely cultivated across North Africa, northern A ...

s and most of the water is used for

irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering of plants) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has bee ...

. To the west of Kallag, the last village in Panjgur is Dabbag, where there are more pools and many long grass,

tamarisk The genus ''Tamarix'' (tamarisk, salt cedar, taray) is composed of about 50–60 species of flowering plants in the family Tamaricaceae, native to drier areas of Eurasia and Africa. The generic name originated in Latin and may refer to the Tamb ...

and kahur trees in which wild pigs were to be found in the early 20th century.

Tributaries

The only considerable

tributaries A tributary, or an ''affluent'', is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream ('' main stem'' or ''"parent"''), river, or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries, and the main stem river into which the ...

joining the river west of Panjgur are the Mazan Dashtuk from the west, the Askani from the east, and the Gwargo from the south. After traversing Panjgur, the main stream turns northward and joins the Mashkel River from Kuhak on the

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

ian side just south of the point where it bursts through the Koh-e-Sabz range by the Tank-e-Grawag or Grawag defile. The Mashkel River crosses the Siahan Range at Tank-e-Zurrati and runs along the western side of Kharan to the Hamun-i-Mashkel, the total length from the source of the Rakshan being 258 miles.

Physical features

Through a considerable water course, the banks of the Rakshan are low, shelving and irregular, consisting of hard

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...

known as kork in the

Balochi language Balochi (, romanized: ) is a Northwestern Iranian language, spoken primarily in the Balochistan region of Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan. In addition, there are speakers in Oman, the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, Turkmenistan, East Afr ...

. The river carries high floods, but owing to its breadth they never do much harm. The bed contains a little

or grass to relieve the monotony of the barren region which it traverses. Though the river is easy to cross, dangerous

quicksand Quicksand (also known as sinking sand) is a colloid consisting of fine granular material (such as sand, silt or clay) and water. It forms in saturated loose sand when the sand is suddenly agitated. When water in the sand cannot escape, it crea ...

s exist in some places.

Sixteenth-century dam

Close to Bonistan village, there are remains of a 16th-century dam which is known as Band-e-Gillar. However, little research or historic evidence is available to determine how the dam was built and how the water was used downstream.

References

{{Waters of Pakistan Rivers of Balochistan (Pakistan) Washuk District Rivers of Pakistan