Balkh ( Tajik: Балх), before 2017: ''Kolkhozobod'' or ''Kolkhozabad'' ( Russian transliteration), is a town in

Tajikistan Tajikistan, officially the Republic of Tajikistan, is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Dushanbe is the capital city, capital and most populous city. Tajikistan borders Afghanistan to the Afghanistan–Tajikistan border, south, Uzbekistan to ...

and not to be confused with the ancient city of Balkh (Bactra) located in modern-day northern

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

, after which the town was named in 2017. It is the administrative capital of

Jaloliddin Balkhi District Jaloliddin Balkhi District (; , 2007-2016 ''Rumi District'', before 2007 ''Kolkhozobod District, in 1933 Vakhsh district, 1934 — 1957 Kaganovichabad, before 1933 Tughalang and Halovard''), is a Districts of Tajikistan, district in Khatlon Region ...

(Kolkhozobod district until June 2007) in the south-west of

Khatlon Region Khatlon Region (), one of the four provinces of Tajikistan, is the most populous of the four first-level administrative regions in the country. It is situated in the southwest of the country, between the Hisor Range, Hisor (Gissar) Range in the n ...

. The population of Balkh in 2020 is estimated at 19,000.

Historical names

The settlement was called Tugalang between 1882–1934 and Kaganovichabad between 1934 and 1957. The name Kolkhozabad (Russian version) or Kolkhozobod (Tajik version) was in use until 1991, when the town was renamed ''imeni Isoeva'', literally "a settlement named after Sirodjiddin Isoev", who had headed the district for more than 28 years during the Soviet era and had been awarded a

Hero of Socialist Labor The Hero of Socialist Labour () was an honorific title in the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact countries from 1938 to 1991. It represented the highest degree of distinction in the USSR and was awarded for exceptional achievements in Soviet ...

. The name Kolkhozobod has been subsequently restored and the district capital was listed again as Kolkhozobod (or Kolkhozabad) in official publications. In February 2017, it was officially renamed ''Balkh''. A location with the same name (Kolkhozabad) exists also in

Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province Gorno-Badakhshan, officially the Badakhshan Mountainous Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region in eastern Tajikistan, in the Pamir Mountains. It makes up nearly forty-five percent of the country's land area but only two percent of its popul ...

, in the eastern part of Tajikistan.The curious story of the name Kolkhozabad in Tajikistan's Pamir region
It lies north-east of

Khorugh Khorog ( ), also Khorugh ( ) or Kharagh ( ), is the capital of Gorno-Badakhshan, Tajikistan. It is also the capital of the Shughnon District of Gorno-Badakhshan. It has a population of 30,500 (2020 ). Khorog is above sea level in the Pamir M ...

on the

Pamir Highway The M41, known informally and more commonly as the Pamir Highway (), is a road traversing the Pamir Mountains through Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan with a length of over 1,200 km. It is the only continuous route through the d ...

Geography

Climate

Balkh has a

cold semi-arid climate Cold is the presence of low temperature, especially in the atmosphere. In common usage, cold is often a subjective perception. A lower bound to temperature is absolute zero, defined as 0.00K on the Kelvin scale, an absolute thermodynamic ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

''BSk''). The average annual temperature is . The warmest month is July with an average temperature of and the coolest month is January with an average temperature of 3.1 °C (37.6 °F). The average annual precipitation is 279.4 mm (11") and has an average of 70 days with precipitation. The wettest month is March with an average of 67.1 mm (2.6") of precipitation and the driest month is August with an average of 0.1 mm of precipitation.

References

External links

Kolkhozobod (Khatlon) on Maplandia.com

Kolkhozabad (Pamir) on Maplandia.com
Populated places in Khatlon Region {{Khatlon-geo-stub