- Zeravshan River
Zeravshan River (also Zarafshan or Zarafshon, _tg. Дарёи Зарафшон, _uz. Zarafshon, from the Persian word زر افشان, "zar afshān", meaning "the sprayer of gold"), whilst smaller and less well-known than the two great rivers of
Central Asia , theAmu Darya (or Oxus) and theSyr Darya (or Jaxartes), is if anything more valuable as a source of irrigation in the region. Its name, "sprayer of gold" in Persian, refers to the presence of gold-bearing sands in the upper reaches of the river. To the ancient Greeks it was known as the Polytimetus.It rises at coord|39|30|N|70|35|E| on the fringes of the Pamirs in
Tajikistan , flowing due west for some 300 km, passingPenjikent before enteringUzbekistan at coord|39|32|N|67|27|E|, where it turns west-to-north-west, flowing past the legendary city ofSamarkand , which is entirely dependent on theoasis thus created, until it bends left again to the west north ofNavoiy and further to the south-west, passingBukhara before it loses itself in the desert beyond the city of Karakul (Qorako‘l ), not quite reaching theAmu Darya , of which it was formerly a tributary.The Zeravshan range (or Zeravshan mountains) rises to the south of the river. The range extends over 370 km in the east-west direction along the south of
Sughd Province inTajikistan , reaching the highest point of 5,489 m ( [http://www.fany.ru/index.php?mod=gallery&page=mount_chimtarga Chimtarga peak] ) in its central part. South-west ofPenjikent the range crosses fromTajikistan intoUzbekistan , where it continues at decreasing elevations (1,500-2,000 m) along the internal border between Samarkand and Surkhandarya provinces, until it blends into the desert south-west ofSamarkand . ["Atlas of the Soviet Republics of Central Asia", Moscow, 1988, in Russian.]Zarafshan is also a city in Uzbekistan'sNavoiy Province , called "the gold capital of Uzbekistan".References
Further reading
* В.В. Бартольд "К Истории Орошения в Туркестане" (Collected Works, Vol.3) (Москва) 1965
*V.V. Barthold "Turkestan Down to the Mongol Invasion" (London) 1968
* Robert Lewis "Early Irrigation in West Turkestan" "Annals of the Association of American Geographers" Vol.56 .3 (Sept. 1966) pp467-491
* Edgar Knobloch "Beyond the Oxus" (London) 1972
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