The Amu Darya (in Persian (فارسی), also known as Farsi (local name), Parsi (older local name, but still used by some speakers), Tajik (a Central Asian dialect) or Dari (an Afghan dialect), is a language spoken in Iran, Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Uzbekistan. It has official-language status in the first... Persian آمودریا; Darya means " For the Second World War frigate class, see River class frigate The Murray River in Australia A waterfall on the Ova da Fedoz, Switzerland A river is a large natural waterway. It is a specific term in the vernacular for large streams, stream being the umbrella term used in the... river" in Persian) rises in the Located in Central Asia, the Pamir Mountains are formed by the junction of the worlds greatest mountain ranges, a geologic structural knot from which the great Tian Shan, Karakoram, Kunlun, and Hindu Kush mountain systems radiate. The Pamir region is centered in the Tajikistani region of Gorno-Badakhshan. Parts... Pamirs and flows mainly north-west through the The Hindu Kush or Hindukush (هندوکش in Persian) is a mountain range in Afghanistan as well as in the Northern Areas of Pakistan. It is the westernmost extension of the Pamir Mountains, the Karakoram Range, and the Himalaya. It was previously known as the Caucasus... Hindu Kush, Turkmenistan, once known as the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic is a country in Central Asia. It has borders with Afghanistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and has a coastline on the Caspian Sea. National motto: none Official language Turkmen Capital Ashgabat President and Prime Minister Saparmurat Niyazov Area  - Total  - % water... Turkmenistan, and The Republic of Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia (it is surrounded only by landlocked countries and, along with Liechtenstein, is one of only two such countries in the world). It shares borders with Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. National motto: none Official language Uzbek Capital... Uzbekistan to join the The Aral Sea has now shriveled to well under half of the area it covered fifty years ago. The Aral Sea is an endorheic inland sea in Central Asia; it lies between Kazakhstan in the north and Karakalpakstan, an autonomous region of Uzbekistan, in the south. Since the 1960s, the... Aral Sea in a large Nile River delta, as seen from Earth orbit. Photo courtesy of NASA. A delta is the mouth of a river where it flows into an ocean, sea, or lake, building outwards (as a deltaic deposit) from sediment carried by the river and deposited as the water current is dissipated. Deltaic... river delta. It forms part of the northern border of Afghanistan (Pashtu/Dari-Persian: Afğānistān افغانستان) is a country in Central Asia. It is bordered by Iran in the west, Pakistan in the south and east, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan in the north, and China in the... Afghanistan and is important for Irrigating cotton fields Irrigation in the Heart of the Sahara Irrigation (in agriculture) is the replacement or supplementation of rainfall with water from another source in order to grow crops. In contrast, agriculture that relies only on direct rainfall is sometimes referred to as dryland farming. How it works in... irrigation. It is navigable for over 1450 km (800 miles). Its total length is 2400 km (1500 miles).

Use of water from the Amu Darya for Irrigating cotton fields Irrigation in the Heart of the Sahara Irrigation (in agriculture) is the replacement or supplementation of rainfall with water from another source in order to grow crops. In contrast, agriculture that relies only on direct rainfall is sometimes referred to as dryland farming. How it works in... irrigation has been a major contributing factor in the shrinking of the Aral Sea since the late Events and trends Technology United States tests the first fusion bomb. See History of nuclear weapons Sputnik, the first man-made satellite, and thus the Sputnik crisis The De Havilland Comet enters service as the worlds first jet airliner Charles Townes builds a maser in 1953 at Columbia University... 1950s.

In antiquity the river was known to the Westerners as the Oxus, and historical records state that in different periods the river has flowed into the Aral Sea, the Caspian Sea viewed from orbit The Caspian Sea or Mazandaran Sea is a landlocked sea between Asia and Europe ( European Russia). It is the worlds largest inland body of water, with a surface area of 371,000 km² (143,000 sq. mi.), and therefore has characteristics common to... Caspian Sea or both, similar to the Syr Darya (also known as Syrdarya or Sirdaryo) is a river in Central Asia. It rises in two headstreams in the Tien Shan mountains in Kyrgyzstan and eastern Uzbekistan and flows for some 2,220 km (1,380 miles) west and north-west through southern Kazakhstan to the Aral Sea... Jaxartes river. In the East it has mostly been called by its Persian name Amu Darya.

See also

• Syr Darya (also known as Syrdarya or Sirdaryo) is a river in Central Asia. It rises in two headstreams in the Tien Shan mountains in Kyrgyzstan and eastern Uzbekistan and flows for some 2,220 km (1,380 miles) west and north-west through southern Kazakhstan to the Aral Sea... Syr Darya
• Transoxiana (sometimes spelled Transoxania) is the largely obsolete name used for the portion of Central Asia corresponding approximately with modern-day Uzbekistan and southwest Kazakhstan. Geographically, it means the region between the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers. When used in the present, it usually implies that one is talking... Transoxiana