زرافشان (نهر)

"Zarafshan River" redirects here. For the river in Xinjiang, China, see Yarkand River.

للاستخدامات الأخرى، انظر Zarafshan (disambiguation)

Zarafshon
River Zarafshon near Panjakent, Tajikistan
The Zarafshon in the Amu Darya basin
الموقع
Country	Tajikistan, Uzbekistan
السمات الطبيعية
Source	Zeravshan Glacier
• coordinates	39°30′N 70°35′E
المصب	Qorakoʻl oasis
• الإحداثيات	39.5477°N 63.869°E / 39.5477; 63.869
الطول	877 km (545 mi)
مساحة الحوض	17،700 km2 (6،800 sq mi)
سمات الحوض
المدن	Panjakent, Samarkand, Bukhara
الروافد
- اليسرى	Fan Darya, Kshtut, Magiyan

Location of Zeravshan River in Central Asia.

Zeravshan River and Samarkand from space.

The Zarafshon is a river in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Its name 'spreader of gold' in Persian refers to the presence of gold-bearing sands in the upper reaches of the river. It was known as the Polytimetus by the ancient Greeks. The river is known in Russian as Zeravshan, and it was also formerly known as the Sughd River. The river is 877 كيلومتر (545 mi) long and has a basin area of 17،700 متر كيلومربع (6،800 sq mi). It is the site of the ancient Battle of the Polytimetus.

 Geography

It rises at the Zarafshan Glacier, close to where the Turkestan Range and the Zeravshan Range of the Pamir-Alay mountains meet, in Tajikistan. In its upper course, upstream from its confluence with the Fan Darya, it is also called Matcha. It flows due west for some 300 كيلومتر (190 mi), passing Panjakent before entering Uzbekistan at 39°32′N 67°27′E, where it turns west-to-north-west, flowing past the legendary city of Samarkand, where it feeds the Dargom Canal, which is entirely dependent on the oasis thus created, until it bends left again to the west north of Navoiy and further to the south-west, passing Bukhara before it is lost in the desert beyond the city of Qorakoʻl (Karakul), not quite reaching the Amu Darya, of which it was formerly a tributary.

 See also

• Zarafshon, a city in Uzbekistan's Navoiy Region, called "the gold capital of Uzbekistan".
• Zarafshan (disambiguation)
• Zarafshan Bridge

 References

•  "Zerafshan". Encyclopedia Americana. 1920. 

 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 No..3 (Sept. 1966) pp467–491
• Edgar Knobloch "Beyond the Oxus" (London) 1972