THE NORTHERN BORDER AND THE OXUS RIVER: ITS CHARACTER, TRIBUTARIES AND FORDS
The Amu Daria, the more modern rendering of the name of the classic Oxus, serves along the north and north-east of Afghanistan for a distance of 330 miles as the frontier between Afghan territory and the dominions of the Amir of Bokhara. Rising in the region of the Pamirs this river, which is among the most historical in Asia, falls into the Aral sea after traversing more than 1400 miles. The area of its basin is estimated at 308,804 square kilomètres, while for a space of 200 miles it flows through Bokharan territory, after which, for a further 200 miles, it acts as the frontier between the Syr Daria province and the Khanate of Khiva.
Contributing to the volume of its upper waters are two principal streams, the Pamir and the Panja. The latter is the name by which the Upper Oxus is known. The word Panja, which is somewhat generic, is believed to refer to five streams existing in this region. It is related also to the names of the well-known Afghan forts of Kala Panja and Kala Bar Panja. It denotes the five fingers. It will be admitted that the existence of a sacred edifice erected over a stone bearing the imprint of the hand of Hazrat Ali, son-in-law of Mahommed, and situated in the vicinity of Kala Panja, is presumptive evidence of an affinity between the existence of the five streams and the shrine. Further down the river, in Shignan, at Kala Bar Panja which means “The fort over the Panja,” a fort has been constructed above a similar mark to that defining the position of Kala Panja. There is little doubt that some numerical quantity is expressed in the nomenclature.
In this wilderness, which in winter is a world of snow and ice, there is another river, the Ak-su, so that there are three streams, the Pamir, Panja, and the Ak-su. This trio drains the Pamirs, the Ak-su uniting with the Panja at Kala Wamar, the others at Langar Kisht. The Pamir and the Ak-su rise amid the Nicholas glaciers which drain into Lake Victoria and Lake Chakmaktin; and, while neither of these lakes can be identified positively as the sole source of the Oxus nor the Pamir river be said to represent its origin, rivers, glaciers and lakes are associated very closely with its head-waters. The larger lake, known as Lake Victoria, and discovered in 1838 by Wood, is situated on the Pamir river; the smaller lake, Lake Chakmaktin, is on the Ak-su. The Pamir Daria flows through the Great Pamir. It possesses direct connection with the Oxus at Langar Kisht. The Ak-su flows through the Little Pamir. Lake Chakmaktin, lying on the Little Pamir, is situated 290 feet lower than Lake Victoria, which is 13,390 feet above sea-level. Panja, the third stream, rises in the congeries of glaciers which lie immediately below the Wakh-jir Pass—indisputably separate from the Nicholas glacier and without any connection with the two lakes. The five rivers which make up the waters of the Panja or Oxus are the Pamir, Panja, Ak-su or Murghab, Shakh and Ghund. Many of these streams bear two, three, or even five names, this engaging variety of description springing from the fact that the several parts of the same stream are differently described by the various natives—Afghans, Chinese, Tajiks and Kirghiz—who frequent the Pamir region. In some cases, too, explorers have added names derived from imperfect interpretation of local information, until it may be said that few rivers in the world bear so many names as does the Oxus in its higher reaches.
Photo, Olufsen
NEAR THE SOURCE OF THE OXUS
