The
Amu Darya (from -
Āmūdaryā, lit. "
Amu River"), in antiquity known as
Oxus (Ὦξος) to Greeks and Romans or Vaksu to Indo-Aryans, is a major river in
Central Asia. It is formed by the junction of the
Vakhsh and
Panj rivers. In ancient times, the river was regarded as the boundary between
Irān and
Tūrān.
[B. Spuler, , in Encyclopædia Iranica, online ed., 2009] Names
Pontoon Bridge on the Amu River near
UrgenchThe name
Amu is said to have come from the city of
Āmul, now known as
Türkmenabat, in modern
Turkmenistan.
In
classical antiquity, the river was known as the
Ōxus in
Latin and
Ὦξος Oxos in
Greek — a clear derivative of
Vakhsh — the name of the largest tributary of the river. In
Middle Persian sources of the
Sassanid period the river is known as
Wehrōd (lit. "good river").
Medieval
Arabic and
Muslim sources call the river
Jayhoun (جيحون) which is derived from
Gihon, the biblical name for one of the four rivers of the
Garden of Eden.
[William C. Brice. 1981. Historical Atlas of Islam (Hardcover). Leiden with support and patronage from Encyclopaedia of Islam. ISBN 90-04-06116-9.]In
Vayu Purana and
Matsya Purana, the river is mentioned as
Chakshu, flowing through the countries of
Tusharas (
Rishikas?), Lampakas,
Pahlavas,
Paradas and
Shakas etc.
Description
Map of area around the Aral Sea. Aral Sea boundaries are circa 1960. Countries at least partially in the Aral Sea watershed are in yellow.
The river is navigable for over 1,450 km (800 miles). Its total length is 2,400 km (1,500 miles) and its drainage basin totals in area, providing a mean discharge of around
of water per year. All of the water comes from the high mountains in the south where annual
precipitation can be over . Even before large-scale irrigation began, high summer evaporation meant that not all of this discharge reached the
Aral Sea - though there is some evidence the large Pamir
glaciers provided enough melt water for the Aral to overflow during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries A.D.
One source of the Amu River is the
Pamir River, which emerges from Lake
Zorkul (once also known as Lake Victoria) in the
Pamir Mountains (ancient
Mount Imeon), and flows west to Qila-e Panja, where it joins the Wakhan River to form the Panj River.
Another claimed source of the Amu River is an ice cave at the end of the
Wakhjir valley, in the
Wakhan Corridor, in the
Pamir Mountains, near the border with Pakistan. A
glacier turns into the Wakhan River and joins the Pamir River about downstream).
The Panj River forms the border of
Afghanistan and
Tajikistan. It flows west to
Ishkashim where it turns north and then east north-west through the
Hindu Kush passing the
Tajik-Afghan Friendship Bridge. It subsequently forms the border of Afghanistan and
Uzbekistan for about , passing
Termez and the
Afghanistan-Uzbekistan Friendship Bridge. It follows the border of Afghanistan and
Turkmenistan for another before it flows into Turkmenistan at
Atamyrat. As the
Amudarya, it flows across Turkmenistan south to north, passing
Türkmenabat, and forms the border of Turkmenistan and
Uzbekistan from
Halkabat. It is then split into many waterways that are used to form the
river delta joining the Aral Sea, passing
Urgench,
Daşoguz and other cities, but it does not reach what is left of the sea anymore and is lost in the desert.
Use of water from the Amu River for
irrigation has been a major contributing factor to the shrinking of the Aral Sea since the late 1950s.
Historical records state that in different periods, the river flowed into the
Aral Sea (from the south), the
Caspian Sea (from the east) or both, similar to the
Syr Darya (Jaxartes, in
Ancient Greek).
See also
