River
Zeravshan
877 km from source to mouth · Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.
Uzbekistan and TajikistanFlows into Amu Darya2nd longest in Uzbekistan
In numbers
Length
877km
Average flow
160m³/s
Basin
41,860km²
Drop
2,651m
from 2,849 m to 198 m
Countries
2
The journey
From source to mouth
877 km of river and 12 stops on the way: 7 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 2,849 m
- 217 kmFan Daryatributary
- 280 kmKshtuttributary
- 312 kmAmondara13,380 people
- 322 kmMogiyondaryatributary
- 336 kmPanjakent35,085 people
- 401 kmJomboy Shahri14,429 people
- 408 kmSamarkand546,303 people
- 422 kmDahbed8,044 people
- 426 kmSiyob rivertributary
- 533 kmYangirabot17,000 people
- 533 kmAkdar’yatributary
- 730 kmRomitan Shahri12,927 people
- 877 kmAmu Daryaat 198 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan
At the mouth it carries 162 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 15 seconds. It drops from 2,849 m to 198 m, 3.0 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 41,860 km², about the size of NL. 5.4 million people live in it. Highest water: April; lowest: from July to October. It is heavily dammed: reservoirs can hold 52% of a year's flow.
Where to start
- SamarkandLargest city on its banks · 546,303 people
- Samarkand International Airport (SKD)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 5 km from the cityCar hire in SamarkandDiscover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From May to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Zeravshan, month by month
Highest water: April
Lowest water: from July to October. Best months to visit: from May to September.
From about 0.0 m³/s in the lowest month to 680 m³/s in the highest. An estimate: the monthly flow is modelled from the lowest and highest months of WaterGAP (RiverATLAS, 1971–2000) and the rain and snow along the river (WorldClim). Dams change the real rhythm. The chip is the average air temperature; below it, the month's rain.
Plan the trip
Plan the trip: boat trips, a bed by the river, a car
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
The basin
Zeravshan: the basin in numbers
62,306 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 5.4millionpeople live in the basin
- 88/km²people per km²
- 1,152maverage altitude of the basin
- 403mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 11.1°Caverage air temperature
- 3%protected areas
- 0.7%covered by lakes
- 4%permafrost
- 1.7km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 21% Cropland
- 57% Pasture
- 6% Towns and cities
RiverATLAS (HydroATLAS v1.0, CC BY 4.0): land cover, people, protected areas, glaciers and dams over the whole basin upstream of the mouth.
Along the river
Zeravshan: what you find on the way
- 5Weirs
- 2Waterfalls
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.3 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Zeravshan in our other atlases
What our sister atlases know about the waterfalls on this river, the lakes it flows through, the beaches at its mouth, the mountains where it rises and the islands off its mouth.
1mountain at the sourcePeakyas
From space
The source and the mouth, seen from orbit
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX IT Services GmbH (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2016), CC BY 4.0. The glowing line is the river as drawn by RiverATLAS.
Photos
Zeravshan in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Amu DaryaUzbekistan2,620 km1,400 m³/sTributaries (13)
Also: Fan Darya, Mogiyondarya, Kshtut, Akdar’ya, Siyob river, Dardar, Lyangar-Say, Madm, Khushikat, Kishtudak, Zerobod, Tagob, Iskodar
In the same basin
Tajikistan921 km1,000 m³/sVakhsh RiverTajikistan524 km160 m³/sBartang RiverTajikistan528 km130 m³/sKokcha River
Afghanistan360 km180 m³/sQashqadaryo RiverUzbekistan378 km25 m³/sSurxondaryoUzbekistan175 km66 m³/sKofarnihon RiverTajikistan387 km160 m³/sGunt RiverTajikistan296 km100 m³/sPamir RiverAfghanistan118 km13 m³/sKunduz RiverAfghanistan420 km160 m³/sNearby
Rivers nearby
Uzbekistan378 km25 m³/s97 km awayMarghab River
Turkmenistan978 km130 m³/s249 km awayHari RiverTurkmenistan1,150 km30 m³/s364 km awaySurxondaryoUzbekistan175 km66 m³/s398 km awayKushk RiverTurkmenistan277 km3.5 m³/s400 km awayPanj RiverTajikistan921 km1,000 m³/s474 km awayChirchiqUzbekistan154 km220 m³/s437 km awayVakhsh RiverTajikistan524 km160 m³/s474 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q501027) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed from the source to the mouth given by Wikidata |
| Flow | WaterGAP (RiverATLAS), 1971–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Climate along the river | WorldClim (RiverATLAS), 1970–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Towns, bridges, dams | Wikidata · CC0; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0 |
| Along the river | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Our other atlases | Peakyas — Wikidata · CC0; © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0; HydroLAKES · CC BY 4.0; NOAA OISST |
Every source and licence is on the data sources page.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers or canyons?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.
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