The Zarafshan Range, formerly the Zeravshan Range, is a

mountain range A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills arranged in a line and connected by high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt is a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form, structure, and alignment that have aris ...

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 ...

, part of the

Pamir-Alay The Pamir-Alay 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 range of Pamir. They are variously considered part of ...

mountains. Almost all of the range belongs to the

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land in which all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, ...

s of the

Zarafshan River The Zarafshon is a river in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan in Central Asia. Its name, "spreader of gold" in Persian language, Persian, refers to the presence of gold-bearing sands in the upper reaches of the river. To the ancient Greeks it was known ...

. The Persian name is believed to possibly be a reference to gold found in bed of the Zarafshan River and its tributaries, which has ushered prosperity to the region from ancient times.

Geography and geology

The range extends over in an east−west direction along the south of

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 ...

, reaching the highest point of (Chimtarga Peak) in its central part. South-west of

Panjakent Panjakent () or Penjikent () is a city in the Sughd province of Tajikistan on the river Zeravshan (river), Zeravshan, with a population of 52,500 (2020 estimate). It was once an ancient town in Sogdiana. The ruins of the old town are on the outsk ...

the range crosses from Tajikistan into

, where it continues at decreasing elevations () along the internal border between

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 ...

and Kashkadarya Regions provinces, until it blends into the desert south-west of

. There are two other mountain ranges running in an east−west direction parallel to the Zarafshan Range. To the north, the Zeravshan Valley runs east for approximately from

and separates the Zarafshan Range from the Turkestan Range. To the south, the Hisar range runs parallel to the Zarafshan Range. To the west of Lake Iskanderkul, the Zarafshan Range and the Gissar Range are connected by the Fann Mountains, which is the highest part of both ranges. The Zarafshan Range is crossed in the meridional direction by three rivers: the Fan Darya, the Kashtutu Darya, and the Maghian Darrya, all of which flow north and are left tributaries of the Zarafshan. The part of the Zarafshan Range east of the Fan Darya is known as the Matcha Range. It has heights around and in the east, it is connected to the Alay Range and the Turkestan Range. This point (the Matcha Mountains) is the location of the Zarafshan Glacier, which is long and is one of the longest glaciers of the Central Asia. The northern slopes of the Matcha Range are relatively smooth and descend to the Zarafshan, whereas the southern slopes sharply drop to the valley of the Yaghnob River. The highest part of the range is located between the Fan Darya and the Kashtutu Darya and includes the Fann Mountains. The western part of the range is up to and is forested. The southern slopes of the western part of the ridge belong to the drainage basin of the Kashka Darya, which rises in the range's southern watershed. The river terminates between Panjakent and Lake Karakul. Water is precious in the region and is utilized for irrigation − an irrigation system that has developed involves 85 main canal totalling a length of . There are several passes crossing the range, including Akhba-Tavastfin, Akhba-Bevut, Akhba-Guzun, Akhba-Surkltat, Darkh Pass, Minora, and Marda-Kishtigeh. Various elevations include at Kshtut Pass, at Mount Chandara, and at Mount Hazret Sultan. Fan Darya makes a gorge going across the ridge. The road connecting

Dushanbe Dushanbe is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Tajikistan. , Dushanbe had a population of 1,564,700, with this population being largely Tajiks, Tajik. Until 1929, the city was known in Russian as Dyushambe, and from 1929 to 1961 as St ...

and

Khujand Khujand, sometimes spelled Khodjent and formerly known as Leninabad from 1936 to 1991, is the second-largest city of Tajikistan and the capital of Tajikistan's northernmost Sughd province. Khujand is one of the oldest cities in Central Asia, d ...

is built in the ridge. The geological formations in the mountains of the upper Zarafshan Valley contain minerals such as coal, iron, gold alum and sulphur. Gold is reported from the entire course of the Fan Darya, Kashtutu Darya, and Maghian Darya.

History

The slopes of the range have been populated since antiquity. Prehistoric Siypantosh Rock Paintings are preserved in the Uzbek portion of the range. In about 400 BC, they belonged to the Iranian civilization of

Sogdiana Sogdia () or Sogdiana was an ancient Iranian civilization between the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya, and in present-day Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. Sogdiana was also a province of the Achaemenid Empire, and l ...

. In 330 BC, during the Asian Campaign, troops of

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon (; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), most commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip ...

reached the Zarafshan Valley. The name of Lake Iskanderkul clearly originates from the name of Alexander - Iskander; however, attempts to place a connection between the lake and the campaign only exist at the level of legend. Together with the rest of Western Tajikistan, the Zarafshan Range has changed hands several times, being part of the

Hephthalite Empire The Hephthalites (), sometimes called the White Huns (also known as the White Hunas, in Iranian as the ''Spet Xyon'' and in Sanskrit and Prakrit as the ''Sveta-huna''), were a people who lived in Central Asia during the 5th to 8th centuries CE, ...

, the

Umayyad Caliphate The Umayyad Caliphate or Umayyad Empire (, ; ) was the second caliphate established after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and was ruled by the Umayyad dynasty. Uthman ibn Affan, the third of the Rashidun caliphs, was also a member o ...

, and the

Samanid Empire The Samanid Empire () was a Persianate Sunni Muslim empire, ruled by a dynasty of Iranian ''dehqan'' origin. The empire was centred in Khorasan and Transoxiana, at its greatest extent encompassing northeastern Iran and Central Asia, from 819 ...

. In the 13th century, it was taken over by the

Mongols Mongols are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, China ( Inner Mongolia and other 11 autonomous territories), as well as the republics of Buryatia and Kalmykia in Russia. The Mongols are the principal member of the large family o ...

, and in the 16th century, became part of the

Khanate of Bukhara The Khanate of Bukhara was an Uzbek state in Central Asia from 1501 to 1785, founded by the Abu'l-Khayrid dynasty, a branch of the Shaybanids. From 1533 to 1540, Bukhara briefly became its capital during the reign of Ubaidullah Khan. The Khana ...

. The Zarafshan, Yaghnob, and Fan Darya valleys were essentially controlled by local authorities (beks). The fortress of Sarvoda was built to protect the gorge of the Fan Darya. In 1862, the Russian Empire started to penetrate to Central Asia. By 1870, Russian troops occupied both the Zarafshan and the Yaghnob valleys, with the last operation being the Iskanderkul Expedition in the spring of 1870, under the command of the Major General Alexander Abramov. During the expedition, Russian troops took the Yaghnob Valley under control. After 1870, military topographers started to map the mountains, including the Zarafshan Range. In 1870, Alexey Fedchenko lead an expedition to the Zarafshan Valley, and in 1880, Ivan Mushketov discovered the Zarafshan Glacier and investigated the upper part of the valley. In 1892,

Vladimir Komarov Vladimir Mikhaylovich Komarov (, ; 16 March 1927 – 24 April 1967) was a Soviet test pilot, aerospace engineer, and cosmonaut. In October 1964, he commanded Voskhod 1, the first spaceflight to carry more than one crew member. He became the f ...

investigated the Yaghnob valley. In 1868, Zarafshan Okrug was split from the

Emirate of Bukhara The Emirate of Bukhara (, ) was a Muslims, Muslim-Uzbeks, Uzbek polity in Central Asia that existed from 1785 to 1920 in what is now Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. It occupied the land between the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rive ...

. The Okrug was controlled by Russian authorities, but the authority at the local level remained with the beks. The whole Zarafshan Range was inside the okrug. On January 1, 1887 Samarkand Oblast was established, with the administrative center in Samarkand. In 1924, Samarkand Oblast was abolished and split between newly established

Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic The Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic (, ), also known as Soviet Uzbekistan, the Uzbek SSR, UzSSR, or simply Uzbekistan and rarely Uzbekia, was a Republics of the Soviet Union, union republic of the Soviet Union. It was governed by the Communist ...

and Tajik Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, corresponding to the contemporary division between Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

Population

All valleys of the range are populated. There are no towns in the range; the closest towns are

and

. A major road between

and

crosses the range; another road to Samarkand follows the Zarafshan River. The roads into secondary valleys, including the Yaghnob valley, are mostly unpaved and poorly maintained. Most of the population of the range are

Tajiks Tajiks (; ; also spelled ''Tadzhiks'' or ''Tadjiks'') is the name of various Persian-speaking Eastern Iranian groups of people native to Central Asia, living primarily in Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Even though the term ''Tajik'' ...

. The population of the Yaghnob Valley are the Yaghnobi.

Tourism

The Fann Mountains, and, to a lesser extent, the Matcha Mountains are popular among mountaineers and hikers.

Notes

References