The Rakshan River ( ur, دریائے رخشن) rises at the Nidoki pass, south-west of Shireza, district Washuk,

Balochistan Balochistan ( ; bal, بلۏچستان; also romanised as Baluchistan and Baluchestan) is a historical region in Western and South Asia, located in the Iranian plateau's far southeast and bordering the Indian Plate and the Arabian Sea coastline. ...

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

Geography

It is known there as Nag river and runs south-westward. It unites with the lop stream at a point to west of Nag-e-Kalat. It then flows west-south-west through the centre of the long valley which in its centre contains Panjgur city, Makran. Parallel with the river also run the

Siahan Range The Siahan Range is a mountain range in the central part of Balochistan Province of southwestern Pakistan. The Siahan Range is primarily made up of limestone and sandstone and was formed when the north western Indian Plate collided with the Eur ...

in the north and the Zangi Lak hills in the south. At its start, the Rakshan possesses little or no water, however, in Panjgur it expands into a series of bright clear pools (kor joh) connected with each other by small water channels running over a pebbly bed. The banks here are bordered with numerous date palms and most of the water is used for

irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has been devel ...

. To the west of Kallag, the last village in Panjgur is Dabbag, where there are more pools and many long grass,

tamarisk The genus ''Tamarix'' (tamarisk, salt cedar, taray) is composed of about 50–60 species of flowering plants in the family Tamaricaceae, native to drier areas of Eurasia and Africa. The generic name originated in Latin and may refer to the Ta ...

and kahur trees in which wild pigs were to be found in the early 20th century.

Tributaries

The only considerable

tributaries A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainag ...

joining the river west of Panjgur are the Mazan Dashtuk from the west, the Askani from the east, and the Gwargo from the south. After traversing Panjgur, the main stream turns northward and joins the Mashkel River from Kuhak on the

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

ian side just south of the point where it bursts through the Koh-e-Sabz range by the Tank-e-Grawag or Grawag defile. The Mashkel River crosses the Siahan Range at Tank-e-Zurrati and runs along the western side of Kharan to the Hamun-i-Mashkel, the total length from the source of the Rakshan being 258 miles.

Physical features

Through a considerable water course, the banks of the Rakshan are low, shelving and irregular, consisting of hard

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...

known as kork in the

Balochi language Balochi or Baluchi () is an Iranian language spoken primarily in the Balochistan region of Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan. In addition, there are speakers in Oman, the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, Turkmenistan, East Africa and in diaspor ...

. The river carries high floods, but owing to its breadth they never do much harm. The bed contains a little

or grass to relieve the monotony of the barren region which it traverses. Though the river is easy to cross, dangerous quicksands exist in some places.

Sixteenth-century dam

There are remains of a 16th century dam close to Bonistan village which is known as Band-e-Gillar. However no considerable research or historic evidence is available to determine how the people built the dam and how was the water used downstreams.

References

{{Waters of Pakistan Rivers of Balochistan (Pakistan) Washuk District Rivers of Pakistan