The Yaghnob () is a river in

Ayni District Ayni District, also ''Aini District'' (; , ''Nohiyayi Aynī''), is a Districts of Tajikistan, district in the southern part of Sughd Region, Tajikistan, straddling the middle course of the river Zeravshan (river), Zeravshan. Its capital is the tow ...

Sughd Region Sughd Province, also referred to as the Sogdia Region, and Leninabad before 2001, is one of the four administrative divisions and one of the three provinces that make up Tajikistan. Centered in the historical Sogdiana, it is located in the north ...

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 ...

. Together with the Iskander Darya, it forms the Fan Darya, a major left tributary of the Zeravshan. The source of the Yaghnob is in the Matcha Mountains, where the Zarafshan and the

Gissar Range The Hisar Range, formerly the Gissar Range, is a mountain range in Central Asia, in the western part of the Pamir-Alay system, stretching over 200 km in the general east–west direction across the territory of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. G ...

s merge. The Yaghnob is mainly fed by glaciers and snow fields. The river flows from the east to the west, south of and parallel to the upper Zeravshan River, through the

Yaghnob Valley The Yaghnob Valley is a valley in north-west Tajikistan, between the southern slope of the Zarafshan Range and the northern slope of the Gissar Range. The valley is formed by the Yaghnob River and belongs to the Zarafshan basin. It lies between ...

, a remote location populated by the

Yaghnobi people The Yaghnobi ( Yaghnobi: yaγnōbī́t or suγdī́t; Tajik: яғнобиҳо, yağnobiho/jaƣnoʙiho) are an Eastern Iranian people residing in Tajikistan's Sughd province, specifically in the valleys of the Yaghnob, Qul, and Varzob rivers. A ...

speaking the eponymous

Yaghnobi language Yaghnobi is an Eastern Iranian language spoken in the upper valley of the Yaghnob River in the Zarafshan area of Tajikistan by the Yaghnobi people. It is considered to be a direct descendant of Sogdian and has sometimes been called Neo-Sog ...

. The main village in the valley is

Anzob Anzob ( Tajik: Анзоб) is a village and jamoat in north-west Tajikistan. It is located in Ayni District in Sughd Region, in the Zarafshan Range, about north of Dushanbe. The jamoat has a total population of 8,238 (2015).

. It joins the east-flowing Iskander Darya to form the Fan Darya which flows north to join the Zeravshan at

Ayni Ayni ( Quechua and Aymara; also spelled ''Ayniy'' or ''Aini'') can refer to either the concept of reciprocity or mutualism among people of the Andean mountain communities or the practice of this concept. As a noun, the law of ayni states that ...

. The main road north from Dushanbe follows the lower Yaghnob and the Fan Darya. Before the Soviets blasted a road through, the upper valley was geographically isolated due to the presence of a deep gorge, contributing to the limited interaction with outside populations.

References

{{Authority control Rivers of Tajikistan Yaghnob