The Fan Darya (russian: Фандарья) is a river in

Ayni District tg, Ноҳияи Айнӣ , nickname = , motto = , image_skyline = Anzob mountains.jpg , imagesize = , image_caption = Ayni District Landscape , image_flag = , flag_siz ...

Sughd Region Sughd Province ( tg, Вилояти Суғд, Viloyati Sughd, Sogdia Region , fa, ولایت سغد) is one of the four administrative divisions and one of the three provinces ( tg, вилоятҳо, viloyatho , fa, ولایت) that make up ...

Tajikistan Tajikistan (, ; tg, Тоҷикистон, Tojikiston; russian: Таджикистан, Tadzhikistan), officially the Republic of Tajikistan ( tg, Ҷумҳурии Тоҷикистон, Jumhurii Tojikiston), is a landlocked country in Centr ...

. The Fan Darya is long (140 km including its source river Yaghnob), and the area of its

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, t ...

is . It is a major left tributary of the

Zeravshan Zarafshon ( uz, Zarafshon / Зарафшон, fa, زرافشان) is a city in the center of Uzbekistan's Navoiy Region. Administratively, it is a district-level city, that includes the urban-type settlement Muruntau. It has an area of and it ...

.Фандарья

Great Soviet Encyclopedia The ''Great Soviet Encyclopedia'' (GSE; ) is one of the largest Russian-language encyclopedias, published in the Soviet Union from 1926 to 1990. After 2002, the encyclopedia's data was partially included into the later ''Bolshaya rossiyskaya e ...

The Fan Darya is formed at the confluence of the rivers Yaghnob, which flows west from the

Yaghnob Valley The Yaghnob Valley is a valley in north-west Tajikistan, between the southern slope of the Zarafshan Range and the northern slope of the Gissar Range. The valley is formed by the Yaghnob River and belongs to the Zarafshan basin. It lies betwe ...

, and the

Iskander Darya The Iskander Darya (russian: Искандердарья; tg, Искандардарё) is a river in Ayni District of Sughd Region, Tajikistan. The Iskander Darya is long, and the area of its drainage basin is long. It is the left source riv ...

, which has its source in Lake Iskanderkul and flows east. Both the Yaghnob and the Iskander Darya drain the valleys between the

Zeravshan Range The Zarafshan Range (russian: Зеравшанский хребет, ''Zeravšanskij hrebet''; tg, Зарафшон; uz, Zarafshon; also Zeravshan or Zarafshon; from Persian ''Zar-afshān'', meaning "the sprayer of gold") is a mountain rang ...

to the north, the

Gissar Range Hisar Range ( tg, Қаторкӯҳи Ҳисор; uz, Hisor tizmasi, russian: Гиссарский хребет; uk, Ґаторкугі Гісор; fa, رشته‌کوه حصار; also known as Hissar, Hisor, or Gissar Range) is a mountain range ...

to the south and the Fan Mountains to the west. The Fan Darya flows north, crosses the Zeravshan Range and joins the river Zeravshan near the town

Ayni Ayni (Quechua and Aymara also spelled ''Ayniy'' or ''Aini'') can refer to either the concept of reciprocity or mutualism among people of the Andean mountain communities or the practice of this concept. As a noun, the law of ayni states that everyt ...

. The M34 highway, which connects

Dushanbe Dushanbe ( tg, Душанбе, ; ; russian: Душанбе) is the capital and largest city of Tajikistan. , Dushanbe had a population of 863,400 and that population was largely Tajik. Until 1929, the city was known in Russian as Dyushambe (r ...

with

Tashkent Tashkent (, uz, Toshkent, Тошкент/, ) (from russian: Ташкент), or Toshkent (; ), also historically known as Chach is the capital and largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of ...

, follows the whole course of Fan Darya through the gorge to Ayni. The drainage basin of the Fan Darya is confined between the Zeravshan and the Gissar ranges. These ranges are connected in the west by the

Fann Mountains The Fann Mountains ( tg, Кӯҳҳои Фон) are part of the western Pamir-Alay mountain system in Tajikistan's Sughd Province, between the Zarafshan Range to the north and the Gissar Range to the south. In an east-west direction, they extend fr ...

, and in the east by the Matcha Mountains. The lakes and rivers lying in this area, including Iskanderkul, drain into the Fan Darya.

References

{{reflist Rivers of Tajikistan