Kokcha River

The Kokcha River is a river of northeastern Afghanistan. A tributary of the Amu Darya river, it flows through Badakhshan Province in the Hindu Kush range of Afghan Turkestan. The city of Feyzabad lies along the Kokcha. Near the village of Artin Jelow there is a bridge over the river.cite book |last= |first= |authorlink= |coauthors= |editor= Adamec, Ludwig W.|others= |title=Historical and Political Gazeteer of Afghanistan |origdate= |origyear= |origmonth= |url= |format= |accessdate= |accessyear= |accessmonth= |edition= |series= |volume=1 |date= |year=1972 |month= |publisher=Akadamische Druck-u. Verlangsanstalt |location= Graz, Austria |language= |isbn= |oclc= |doi= |id= |pages= 25|chapter= |chapterurl= |quote= ]

The Kokcha River valley is known for its lapis lazuli mining in Badakshan province. Found in limestone these deposits in the mines of Sar-e-Sang have been worked for more than 6,000 years and the Kokcha River valley is considered one of the worlds leading areas of mining this reserve. [citation | last = Oldershaw | first = Cally | title = Firefly Guide to Gems | year = 2003 | publisher = Firefly Books | location = Toronto | contribution = Lapis Lazuli.] The valley was the source of lapis for the ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilizations, as well as the later Greek and Roman. During the height of the Indus valley civilization about 2000 B.C., the Harappan colony now known as Shortugai was established near the lapis mines [Citation | last=Bowersox | first=Gary W. | author-link= | last2=Chamberlin | first2=Bonita E. | author2-link= | year=1995 | title=Gemstones of Afghanistan | publication-place=Tucson, AZ | publisher=Geoscience Press] .

More recently, during the 1980s conflict with the USSR, Afghanistan resistance fighters disassembled unexploded Soviet landmines and ordnance and used the scavenged explosive to help mine lapis along the Kokcha to further fund their resistance efforts.

References

External links

* [http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=Kokcha+river Flickr images]