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Syr Darya (; ; ; , also transliterated Syrdarya or Sirdaryo) is a river
River

A river is a natural stream of water, usually freshwater, flowing toward an ocean, a lake, or another stream. In some cases a river flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water....
 in Central Asia
Central Asia

Central Asia is a region of Asia from the Caspian Sea in the west to central China in the east, and from southern Russia in the north to northern India in the south....
, sometimes known as the Jaxartes or Yaxartes from its Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the historical stage in the development of the Greek language spanning across the Archaic Greece , Classical Greece , and Hellenistic civilization periods of ancient Greece and the classical antiquity....
 name . The Greek name is derived from Old Persian, Yakhsha Arta ("Great Pearly"), a reference to the color of the river's water. In medieval Islamic writings, the river is uniformly known as Sayhoun - after one of the four rivers of Paradise.






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Syr Darya (; ; ; , also transliterated Syrdarya or Sirdaryo) is a river
River

A river is a natural stream of water, usually freshwater, flowing toward an ocean, a lake, or another stream. In some cases a river flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water....
 in Central Asia
Central Asia

Central Asia is a region of Asia from the Caspian Sea in the west to central China in the east, and from southern Russia in the north to northern India in the south....
, sometimes known as the Jaxartes or Yaxartes from its Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the historical stage in the development of the Greek language spanning across the Archaic Greece , Classical Greece , and Hellenistic civilization periods of ancient Greece and the classical antiquity....
 name . The Greek name is derived from Old Persian, Yakhsha Arta ("Great Pearly"), a reference to the color of the river's water. In medieval Islamic writings, the river is uniformly known as Sayhoun - after one of the four rivers of Paradise. (Amu Darya
Amu Darya

The Amu Darya is the longest river in Central Asia. Its name is sometimes represented in a single word, Amudarya .Amu is said to have come from the city of Amul, now known as T?rkmenabat....
 was likewise known as Jayhoun, the name of another one of the four).

The name, which comes from Persian
Persian language

name=Persian|nativename=|pronunciation=[f??r'si]|image=|caption=Farsi in Perso-Arabic script |states= Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Bahrain....
 and has long been used in the East, is a relatively recent one in western writings; prior to the early 20th century, the river was known by various versions of its ancient Greek name. It marked the northernmost limit of Alexander of Macedon
Alexander of Macedon

Alexander of Macedon may refer to:*Alexander I of Macedon BC), ruled from 498?454 BC*Alexander II of Macedon BC), ruled from 370?368 BC*Alexander III of Macedon , or Alexander the Great, ruled from 336?323 BC...
's conquests. Greek historians have claimed that here in 329 BC he founded the city Alexandria Eschate
Alexandria Eschate

Alexandria Eschate was founded by Alexander III of Macedon in August 329 BCE as his most northerly base in Central Asia. It was established in the southwestern part of the Fergana Valley, on the southern bank of the river Syr Darya , at the location of the modern city of Khujand , in the state of Tajikistan....
 (literally, "Alexandria the Furthest") as a permanent garrison. The city is now known as Khujand
Khujand

Khujand , also transliterated as Khudzhand, , formerly Khodjend or Khodzhent until 1939 and Leninabad until 1992, is the second-largest city of Tajikistan....
. In reality, he had just renamed (and possibly, expanded) the city of Cyropolis
Cyropolis

Cyropolis was founded by king Cyrus the Great of Persia in northern Tajikistan in 544 BCE to mark the northeastern border of his Persian empire. Today is named Kurkath or Kurus katha ....
 founded by king Cyrus the Great
Cyrus the Great

Cyrus the Great , , also known as Cyrus II of Persia and Cyrus the Elder, was a Persian people Shah . He was the founder of the Persian Empire under the Achaemenid dynasty, an empire, perhaps the most wealthy and magnificent in history....
 of Persia, more than two centuries earlier.

The river rises in two headstreams in the Tian Shan Mountains
Tian Shan

The Tian Shan , also commonly spelled Tien Shan, is a mountain range located in Central Asia. The Chinese name for Tian Shan or Tien Shan, may in turn go back to a Xiongnu name, qilian reported by the Shiji as the last place where they met and had their baby as in of the Yuezhi, which has been argued to refer to the Tian Shan...
 (ancient Mount Imeon
Mount Imeon

Mount Imeon is an ancient name for the Central Asian complex of mountain ranges comprising the present Hindu Kush, Pamir Mountains and Tian Shan, extending from the Zagros Mountains in the southwest to the Altay Mountains in the northeast, and linked to the Kunlun Mountains, Karakoram and Himalayas to the southeast....
) in Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyzstan , officially the Kyrgyz Republic, is a country in Central Asia. Landlocked and mountainous, it is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the southwest and People's Republic of China to the east....
 and eastern Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan, officially the Republic of Uzbekistan , is a Landlocked_country#Doubly_landlocked_country country in Central Asia, formerly part of the Soviet Union....
 -- the Naryn River
Naryn River

The Naryn River rises in the Tien Shan mountains in Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia, flowing west through the Fergana Valley into Uzbekistan. Here it Confluence with the Kara Darya River to form the Syr Darya....
 and the Kara Darya River -- and flows for some 2,212 km (1,380 miles) west and north-west Uzbekistan and southern Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan, also Kazakstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a large Eurasian country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the List of countries by area as well as the world's largest landlocked country, it has a territory of 2,727,300 km? ....
 to the remains of the Aral Sea
Aral Sea

The Aral Sea is a landlocked endorheic basin in Central Asia; it lies between Kazakhstan in the north and Karakalpakstan, an autonomous region of Uzbekistan, in the south....
. The Syr Darya drains an area of over 800,000 square kilometres, but no more than 200,000 square kilometres actually contribute water to the river. Its annual flow is a very modest 37 cubic kilometres (30 million acre feet
Acre foot

An acre-foot is a unit of volume commonly used in the United States in reference to large-scale water resources, such as reservoir , aqueducts, canals, sewer flow capacity, and river flows....
) per year - half that of its sister river, the Amu Darya.

Along its course, the Syr Darya irrigates the most fertile cotton-growing region in the whole of Central Asia, together with the towns of Kokand
Kokand

Kokand is a city in Fergana Province in eastern Uzbekistan, at the southwestern edge of the Fergana Valley. It has a population of 192,500 . Kokand is 228 km southeast of Tashkent, 115 km west of Andijan, and 88 km west of Fergana....
, Khujand
Khujand

Khujand , also transliterated as Khudzhand, , formerly Khodjend or Khodzhent until 1939 and Leninabad until 1992, is the second-largest city of Tajikistan....
, Kyzylorda and Turkestan
Hazrat-e Turkestan

Turkestan , a city in the South Kazakhstan Province of Kazakhstan, near the Syr Darya river, is where the capital of ancient Kangju was located prior to being moved to Zhe?she....
.

An extensive system of canals, many built in the 18th century by the Uzbek Khanate of Kokand
Khanate of Kokand

The Khanate of Kokand was a state in Central Asia that existed from 1709–1876 within the territory of modern Uzbekistan, southern Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan....
, spans the regions the river flows through. Massive expansion of irrigation canals during the Soviet
Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
 period, to irrigate cotton
Cotton

Cotton is a soft, staple fiber that grows in a form known as a boll around the seeds of the cotton plant a shrub native to tropical and subtropical regions around the world, including the Americas, India and Africa....
 fields, caused ecological damage to the area, with the river drying up long before reaching the Aral Sea
Aral Sea

The Aral Sea is a landlocked endorheic basin in Central Asia; it lies between Kazakhstan in the north and Karakalpakstan, an autonomous region of Uzbekistan, in the south....
 which, as a result, has shrunk to a small remnant of its former size. With millions of people now settled in these cotton areas, it is not clear how the situation can be rectified.

See also

  • Amu Darya
    Amu Darya

    The Amu Darya is the longest river in Central Asia. Its name is sometimes represented in a single word, Amudarya .Amu is said to have come from the city of Amul, now known as T?rkmenabat....
  • Mount Imeon
    Mount Imeon

    Mount Imeon is an ancient name for the Central Asian complex of mountain ranges comprising the present Hindu Kush, Pamir Mountains and Tian Shan, extending from the Zagros Mountains in the southwest to the Altay Mountains in the northeast, and linked to the Kunlun Mountains, Karakoram and Himalayas to the southeast....