1.
Kazakh language
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Kazakh belongs to the Kipchak branch of the Turkic languages. It is closely related to Nogai, Kyrgyz, and especially Karakalpak, Kazakh is also spoken by many ethnic Kazakhs through the former Soviet Union, Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey, and Germany. Like other Turkic languages, Kazakh is a language. The Kazakh language has its speakers spread over a vast territory from the Tian Shan to the shore of Caspian Sea. Kazakh is the state language of Kazakhstan, in which nearly 10 million speakers are reported to live. In China, more than one million ethnic Kazakhs and Kazakh speakers reside in Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture in Xinjiang. Today, Kazakh is written in Cyrillic in Kazakhstan and Mongolia, the oldest known written records of languages closely related to Kazakh were written in the Old Turkic alphabet. However, it is not believed any of these varieties were direct predecessors of Kazakh. Modern Kazakh has historically been written using versions of the Latin, in October 2006, Nursultan Nazarbayev, the President of Kazakhstan, brought up the topic of using the Latin alphabet instead of the Cyrillic alphabet as the official script for Kazakh in Kazakhstan. A Kazakh government study released in September 2007 said that Kazakhstan could feasibly switch to a Latin script over a 10- to 12-year period, the transition was halted temporarily on December 13,2007, with President Nazarbayev declaring, “For 70 years the Kazakhstanis read and wrote in Cyrillic. More than 100 nationalities live in our state, thus we need stability and peace. We should be in no hurry in the issue of alphabet transformation”, Kazakh exhibits tongue-root vowel harmony, with some words of recent foreign origin as exceptions. There is also a system of rounding harmony which resembles that of Kyrgyz, the following chart depicts the consonant inventory of standard Kazakh, many of the sounds, however, are allophones of other sounds or appear only in recent loan-words. The 18 consonant phonemes listed by Vajda are in bold—since these are phonemes, their place and manner of articulation are very general. The borrowed phonemes /f/, /v/, /ɕ/, /t͡ɕ/ and /x/, only occur in recent mostly Russian borrowings, in the table, the elements left of a divide are voiceless, while those to the right are voiced. Kazakh has a system of nine phonemic vowels, three of which are diphthongs, the rounding contrast and /æ/ generally only occur as phonemes in the first syllable of a word, but do occur later allophonically, see the section on harmony below for more information. According to Vajda, the quality of vowels is actually one of neutral versus retracted tongue root. Per convention, rounded vowels are presented to the right of their unrounded counterparts, phonetic values are paired with the corresponding character in Kazakhs Cyrillic alphabet
2.
Uzbek language
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Uzbek is a Turkic language and the official language of Uzbekistan. It has 27 million native speakers and is spoken by the Uzbeks in Uzbekistan, Uzbek belongs to the Eastern Turkic, or Karluk, branch of the Turkic language family. External influences include Persian, Arabic and Russian, one of the most noticeable distinctions of Uzbek from other Turkic languages is the rounding of the vowel /a/ to /ɒ/ or /ɔ/, a feature that was influenced by Persian. In the language itself, Uzbek is oʻzbek tili or oʻzbekcha, in Cyrillic, the same names are written ўзбек тили and ўзбекча, in Arabic script, ازبېک تیلی and ازبېجه. The first Turkic dynasty in the region was that of the Kara-Khanid Khanate in the 9th–12th centuries, the language was championed by Ali-Shir Navai in the 15th and 16th centuries. Navai was the greatest representative of Chagatai language literature and he significantly contributed to the development of the Chagatay language and its direct descendant Uzbek and is widely considered to be the founder of Uzbek literature. Ultimately based on the Karluk variant of the Turkic languages, Chagatay contained large numbers of Persian, by the 19th century it was rarely used for literary composition, but disappeared only in the early 20th century. The term Uzbek as applied to language has meant different things at different times, all three dialects continue to exist within modern spoken Uzbek. Edward A. Allworth argued that this badly distorted the history of the region and was used to give authors such as the 15th century author Ali-Shir Navai an Uzbek identity. Estimates of the number of speakers of Uzbek vary widely, the Swedish encyclopedia Nationalencyklopedin estimates the number of native speakers to be 26 million, and the CIA World Factbook estimates 25 million. The influence of Islam, and by extension, Arabic, is evident in Uzbek loanwords, there is also a residual influence of Russian, from the time when Uzbeks were under the rule of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. Uzbek vocabulary has also heavily influenced by Persian through its historic roots. The Uzbek language has many dialects, varying widely from region to region, however, there is a commonly understood dialect which is used in mass media and in most printed materials. Among the most-widespread dialects are the Tashkent dialect, Afghan dialect, the Ferghana dialect, the Khorezm dialect, the Chimkent-Turkestan dialect, 1928–1940, the Latin-based Yañalif used officially. 1940–1992, the Cyrillic script used officially, since 1992, Yañalif is official in Uzbekistan, although the Cyrillic script is still widely used. Despite the official status of the Latin script in Uzbekistan, the use of Cyrillic is still widespread, especially in advertisements, in newspapers, scripts may be mixed, with headlines in Latin and articles in Cyrillic. The Arabic script is no longer used in Uzbekistan except symbolically in limited texts or for the studies of Chagatai. In the western Chinese region of Xinjiang, where there is an Uzbek minority, however, the Uyghur Arabic alphabet is sometimes used
3.
Kyzylorda
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The city has a population of 157,400. It historically developed around the Syr Darya River and the site of a Kokand fortress, Seljuk, the founder of the Seljuk dynasty, got his start near here. The city had its beginnings in 1820 as the site of a Kokand fortress known as Ak-Mechet, the later-famous Yaqub Beg was once the forts commander, but he was apparently not in command during the final battle. In 1853, during the Russian conquest of Turkestan, the fort was taken by Russian troops under General Vasily Perovsky, the Russians established a new fort and called it Fort-Perovsky, after the general. The town of Perovsk in Russian Turkestan later developed around the fort, in 1925, the city was renamed Kzyl-Orda and was designated as the capital of the Kazak ASSR. The name literally means a red city, from the Turkic кзыл, in 1929 the capital was relocated to the southeastern region and Almaty. Kyzylorda, the Kazakh-based romanized spelling, has used since the late 20th century after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Kyzylorda has a desert climate with hot summers and cold winters. Precipitation is low throughout the year, particularly in the summer months, snow is common, though light, in winter. The lowest temperature on record is −33.9 °C, recorded in February 1969, Kyzylorda is known for its rice production. Many hundreds of hectares are devoted to rice production, two rice mills operate in the city. There are 285 comprehensive schools in the region, where 150,472 students are taught, in addition there are 17 secondary professional schools and 13 professional technical schools. There are 11 higher educational institutions, among them one state institute,5 branches associated with it, in the region there are 67 childrens preschool establishments, where 4476 children are taught. Kyzylorda State University after Korkyt ata is the center of education. Established in 1950, the university trains highly skilled specialists in 54 specialties, at 11 faculties,48 chairs and it has developed as the supply center of the important oilfields in the nearby Turgay Basin. In May 2005 Ilya Ilin won the championship among youthful sportsmen in Pusan. A victory of 17-year-old sportsman of heavy athletics, Ilya Ilin in the championship in Qatar was the triumph of the year. He improved a personal record, established two records of the world among youthful sportsmen, in December cyclists finished the participation of regional sportsmen in the international competitions
4.
Kazakhstan
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Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in northern Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Kazakhstan is the worlds largest landlocked country, and the ninth largest in the world, Kazakhstan is the dominant nation of Central Asia economically, generating 60% of the regions GDP, primarily through its oil/gas industry. It also has vast mineral resources, Kazakhstan is officially a democratic, secular, unitary, constitutional republic with a diverse cultural heritage. Kazakhstan shares borders with Russia, China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan, the terrain of Kazakhstan includes flatlands, steppe, taiga, rock canyons, hills, deltas, snow-capped mountains, and deserts. Kazakhstan has an estimated 18 million people as of 2014, Given its large area, its population density is among the lowest. The capital is Astana, where it was moved in 1997 from Almaty, the territory of Kazakhstan has historically been inhabited by nomadic tribes. This changed in the 13th century, when Genghis Khan occupied the country as part of the Mongolian Empire, following internal struggles among the conquerors, power eventually reverted to the nomads. By the 16th century, the Kazakh emerged as a distinct group, the Russians began advancing into the Kazakh steppe in the 18th century, and by the mid-19th century, they nominally ruled all of Kazakhstan as part of the Russian Empire. Following the 1917 Russian Revolution, and subsequent civil war, the territory of Kazakhstan was reorganised several times, in 1936, it was made the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, part of the Soviet Union. Kazakhstan was the last of the Soviet republics to declare independence during the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Kazakhstan has worked to develop its economy, especially its dominant hydrocarbon industry. Kazakhstans 131 ethnicities include Kazakhs, Russians, Uzbeks, Ukrainians, Germans, Tatars, the Kazakh language is the state language, and Russian has equal official status for all levels of administrative and institutional purposes. The name Kazakh comes from the ancient Turkic word qaz, to wander, the name Cossack is of the same origin. The Persian suffix -stan means land or place of, so Kazakhstan can be translated as land of the wanderers. Kazakhstan has been inhabited since the Neolithic Age, the regions climate, archaeologists believe that humans first domesticated the horse in the regions vast steppes. Central Asia was originally inhabited by the Scythians, the Cuman entered the steppes of modern-day Kazakhstan around the early 11th century, where they later joined with the Kipchak and established the vast Cuman-Kipchak confederation. Under the Mongol Empire, the largest in history, administrative districts were established. These eventually came under the rule of the emergent Kazakh Khanate, throughout this period, traditional nomadic life and a livestock-based economy continued to dominate the steppe. Nevertheless, the region was the focus of ever-increasing disputes between the native Kazakh emirs and the neighbouring Persian-speaking peoples to the south, at its height the Khanate would rule parts of Central Asia and control Cumania
5.
Kyrgyzstan
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Kyrgyzstan, officially the Kyrgyz Republic, is a country in Central Asia. Landlocked and mountainous, Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west and southwest, Tajikistan to the southwest and its capital and largest city is Bishkek. Kyrgyzstans recorded history spans over 2,000 years, encompassing a variety of cultures and empires, ethnic Kyrgyz make up the majority of the countrys 5.7 million people, followed by significant minorities of Uzbeks and Russians. Kyrgyz is closely related to other Turkic languages, although Russian remains widely spoken and is the official language, the majority of the population are non-denominational Muslims. In addition to its Turkic origins, Kyrgyz culture bears elements of Persian, Mongolian and Russian influence. Kyrgyz is believed to have derived from the Turkic word for forty, in reference to the forty clans of Manas. Literally, Kyrgyz means We are forty, at the time, in the early 9th century AD, the Uyghurs dominated much of Central Asia, Mongolia, and parts of Russia and China. King, Scythians were early settlers in present-day Kyrgyzstan, the Kyrgyz state reached its greatest expansion after defeating the Uyghur Khaganate in 840 A. D. From the 10th century the Kyrgyz migrated as far as the Tian Shan range, in the twelfth century the Kyrgyz dominion had shrunk to the Altay Range and Sayan Mountains as a result of the Mongol expansion. With the rise of the Mongol Empire in the thirteenth century, the Kyrgyz peacefully became a part of the Mongol Empire in 1207. The descent of the Kyrgyz from the autochthonous Siberian population is confirmed on the hand by the recent genetic studies. Issyk Kul Lake was a stopover on the Silk Road, a route for traders, merchants. Kyrgyz tribes were overrun in the 17th century by the Mongols, in the century by the Manchurian Qing Dynasty. In the late century, the majority part of what is today Kyrgyzstan was ceded to Russia through two treaties between China and Russia. The territory, then known in Russian as Kirghizia, was incorporated into the Russian Empire in 1876. The Russian takeover was met with numerous revolts against Tsarist authority, in addition, the suppression of the 1916 rebellion against Russian rule in Central Asia caused many Kyrgyz later to migrate to China. Soviet power was established in the region in 1919. On 5 December 1936, the Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic was established as a republic of the Soviet Union
6.
Uzbekistan
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Uzbekistan, officially the Republic of Uzbekistan, is one of only two doubly landlocked countries in the world. Located in Central Asia, it is a unitary, constitutional, presidential republic, comprising twelve provinces, one autonomous republic and a capital city. Uzbekistan is bordered by five landlocked countries, Kazakhstan to the north, Tajikistan to the southeast, Kyrgyzstan to the northeast, Afghanistan to the south, and Turkmenistan to the southwest. Once part of the Turkic Khaganate and later Timurid Empires, the region that includes the Republic of Uzbekistan was conquered in the early 16th century by Eastern Turkic-speaking nomads. Following the breakup of the Soviet Union, it declared independence as the Republic of Uzbekistan on 31 August 1991, Uzbekistan is officially a democratic, secular, unitary, constitutional republic with a diverse cultural heritage. The countrys official language is Uzbek, a Turkic language written in the Latin alphabet and spoken natively by approximately 85% of the population, however, Uzbeks constitute 81% of the population, followed by Russians, Tajiks, Kazakhs, and others. A majority of Uzbeks are non-denominational Muslims, Uzbekistan is a member of the Commonwealth of Independent States, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, UN, and the SCO. While officially a republic, non-governmental human rights organizations define Uzbekistan as an authoritarian state with limited civil rights. Uzbekistans economy relies mainly on commodity production, including cotton, gold, uranium, despite the declared objective of transition to a market economy, its government continues to maintain economic controls which imports in favour of domestic import substitution. Uzbekistan has an area of 447,400 square kilometres and it is the 56th largest country in the world by area and the 42nd by population. Among the CIS countries, it is the 4th largest by area, Uzbekistan lies between latitudes 37° and 46° N, and longitudes 56° and 74° E. It stretches 1,425 kilometres from west to east and 930 kilometres from north to south, Uzbekistan also shares a short border with Afghanistan to the south. Uzbekistan is a dry, landlocked country and it is one of two doubly landlocked countries in the world, the other being Liechtenstein. In addition, due to its location within a series of endorheic basins, less than 10% of its territory is intensively cultivated irrigated land in river valleys and oases. The rest is vast desert and mountains, the climate in the Republic of Uzbekistan is continental, with little precipitation expected annually. The average summer high temperature tends to be 40 °C, while the winter low temperature is around −23 °C. Uzbekistan has a rich and diverse natural environment, the Aral Sea used to be the fourth-largest inland sea on Earth, acting as an influencing factor in the air moisture and arid land use. Since the 1960s, the decade when the misuse of the Aral Sea water began, it has shrunk to less than 50% of its former area, reliable, or even approximate data, have not been collected, stored or provided by any organization or official agency
7.
Tajikistan
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Tajikistan, officially the Republic of Tajikistan, is a mountainous, landlocked country in Central Asia with an estimated 8 million people in 2013, and an area of 143,100 km2. It is bordered by Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to the south, the Republic of Uzbekistan to the west, the Kyrgyz Republic to the north, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan lies to the south, separated by the narrow Wakhan Corridor. Traditional homelands of Tajik people included present-day Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Uzbekistan, a civil war was fought almost immediately after independence, lasting from 1992 to 1997. Since the end of the war, newly established political stability, Tajikistan is a presidential republic consisting of four provinces. Most of Tajikistans 8 million people belong to the Tajik ethnic group, many Tajiks also speak Russian as their second language. Mountains cover more than 90% of the country and it has a transition economy that is highly dependent on remittances, aluminium and cotton production. Tajikistan means the Land of the Tajiks, the suffix -stan is Persian for place of or country and Tajik is, most likely, the name of a pre-Islamic tribe. Tajikistan appeared as Tadjikistan or Tadzhikistan in English prior to 1991 and this is due to a transliteration from the Russian, Таджикистан. In Russian, there is no single letter j to represent the phoneme /ʤ/ and дж, Tadzhikistan is the most common alternate spelling and is widely used in English literature derived from Russian sources. Tadjikistan is the spelling in French and can occasionally be found in English language texts, the way of writing Tajikistan in the Perso-Arabic script is. The earliest recorded history of the dates back to about 500 BCE when much, if not all. After the regions conquest by Alexander the Great it became part of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, northern Tajikistan was part of Sogdia, a collection of city-states which was overrun by Scythians and Yuezhi nomadic tribes around 150 BCE. The Silk Road passed through the region and following the expedition of Chinese explorer Zhang Qian during the reign of Wudi commercial relations between Han China and Sogdiana flourished. Sogdians played a role in facilitating trade and also worked in other capacities, as farmers, carpetweavers, glassmakers. Later the Hephthalite Empire, a collection of tribes, moved into the region. Central Asia continued in its role as a crossroads, linking China, the steppes to the north. It was temporarily under the control of the Tibetan empire and Chinese from 650–680, the Samanid Empire,819 to 999, restored Persian control of the region and enlarged the cities of Samarkand and Bukhara which became the cultural centres of Iran and the region was known as Khorasan. The Kara-Khanid Khanate conquered Transoxania and ruled between 999–1211, during Genghis Khans invasion of Khwarezmia in the early 13th century the Mongol Empire took control over nearly all of Central Asia
8.
Kara Darya
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The Kara Darya or Qaradaryo is a tributary of the Syr Darya in Kyrgyzstan and eastern Uzbekistan. The river is formed by the confluence of Kara-Kulja River and Tar River, there are more than 200 known tributaries of Kara Darya, the largest are Jazy River, Kara Unkur River, Kegart River, Kurshab River, Abshir Sai River, and Aravan Sai River. Its length is 177 kilometres, and watershed area 30,100 square kilometres, the upper Kara Darya flows northwest across eastern Osh Province southwest of and parallel to the Fergana Range. It enters the Ferghana Valley and Uzbek territory a few miles west of Uzgen at Andijan Dam, the lower course is through the Fergana Valley, where it is used for irrigation. In the Fergana Valley its confluence with the Naryn River forms the Syr Darya, there are several dams on the river
9.
Naryn River
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The Naryn River rises in the Tian Shan mountains in Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia, flowing west through the Fergana Valley into Uzbekistan. Here it merges with the Kara Darya River to form the Syr Darya and it is 807 kilometres long and has an annual flow of 13.7 cubic kilometres. The largest tributaries of the Naryn River are, Kichi-Naryn River, At-Bashi River, On Archa River, Kadjyrty River, Chychkan River, Alabuga River, the river contains many reservoirs which are important in the generation of hydroelectricity. The largest of these is the Toktogul Reservoir in Kyrgyzstan containing 19.9 cubic kilometres of water, Dams downstream of the Toktogul in Kyrgyzstan include, Kurpsai, Tash-Kumyr, Shamaldysai and Uch-Kurgansk. Upstream of Toktogul in Kyrgyzstan is the Kambarata-2 and At-Bashi Dams while the Kambarata-1, some places along the river, Kyrgyzstan, Kara-Say, Naryn Region, Naryn, Dostuk, Jalal-Abad Region, Kazarman, Toktogul Reservoir, Kara-Köl, Tash-Kumyr. Rivers Network, Naryn river watersheds - webmap
10.
Chirchiq River
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The Chirchiq or Chirchik is a river of Uzbekistan, a major right tributary of the Syr Darya. It is 155 kilometres in length and its basin has an area of 14,900 square kilometres, the principal tributary is the Ugam River. The river is formed at the confluence of the Chatkal River and Pskem River and it flows through about 30 km of canyon in the upper reaches. Below, the valley widens and eventually joins the Syr Darya, there are several dams on the river which serve both for electricity generation and irrigation. All main canals of Tashkent, such as Bozsu, Anhor, Salar, the river flows through or in close proximity to the cities Hodjikent, Gazalkent, Chirchiq, Tashkent, Yangiyo‘l, and Chinaz. A number of dams are built along the river
11.
Chu River
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Chui River and Chuy River redirect here. For the river of Anhui see Chu River, for the South American Chuí or Chuy River, on the Brazil-Uruguay border and Brazils southernmost point, see Chuí Stream. For the Nam Sam River or Chu River, on the Lao-Vietnam border, the Chu is a river in northern Kyrgyzstan and southern Kazakhstan. Its one of the longest rivers in Kyrgyzstan and in Kazakhstan, the Chu River is formed by the confluence of rivers Joon Aryk and Kochkor in Kochkor District of Naryn Region. After approaching Lake Issyk Kul within a few kilometers, without either flowing into the lake or draining it, it turns to the northwest, in the 1950s an old riverbed called Ketmaldy linked the Chu River and Issyk Kul. During floods part of Chu water would reach the lake, after passing through the narrow Boom Gorge, the river enters the comparatively flat Chuy Valley, within which the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek and the Kazakh city of Shu are located. Much of the Chus water is diverted into a network of canals to irrigate the fertile soils of the Chuy Valley for farming. The area of river was originally home to the Iranian Sughds who spoke Soghdian. During the Middle Ages, the area was strategically important and it was the setting of Suayub, the capital of the Western Turkic Khaganate, and Balasagun, the capital of the Kara-Khitans. Chu River posed a risk of flooding for settlements located in Chu Valley, in winter 1878, an ice gorge formed on Chu River upstream town Tokmok that was the center of Semirechye Province. This was followed by flooding that damaged the town and the center of the province was moved to Pishpek. After this, Tokmak gradually lost its significance, the river flow is regulated by the dam at Orto-Tokoy Reservoir in Kyrgyzstan built in 1957, and the dam at Tasotkel Reservoir in Kazakhstan built in 1974. The Kyrgyz State Agency on Hydrometeorology and Kazakhstan Hydrometeorological Service operate a number of water quality monitoring stations on the Chu River and its tributaries. According to Kyrgyz State Agency on Hydrometeorology, in 2004–08, water pollution index of the Chu River in Chu Valley ranged from 0.25 to 0.7 units that is interpreted as Class II. The only exception was a point downstream Vasilyevka village where water pollution index ranged from 0.4 to 1.2 unit. According to Kazakhstan Hydrometeorological Service, water pollution index of Shu River in Jambyl Region of Kazakhstan amounted to 2.01 in 2008, such water quality parameters as biochemical oxygen demand, nitrites, copper, phenols exceeded the maximum allowable concentrations. In Kyrgyzstan,4892 rivers and canals flow into Chu River
12.
Khujand
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Khujand, formerly Khodjend or Khodzhent until 1936 and Leninabad until 1991, is the second-largest city of Tajikistan and the capital of the northernmost province of Tajikistan, now called Sughd. Khujand is one of the oldest cities in Central Asia, dating back about 2,500 years and it is situated on the Syr Darya at the mouth of the Fergana Valley and was a major city along the ancient Silk Road. Khujand is the site of Cyropolis which was established when king Cyrus the Great founded the city during his last expedition against the Saka tribe of Massagetae shortly before his death. Alexander the Great later built his furthest Greek settlement near Cyropolis in 329 BC, the city would form a bastion for the Greek settlers against the nomadic Scythian tribes who lived north of the Syr Darya River. According to the Roman writer Curtius, Alexandria Ultima retained its Hellenistic culture as late as 30 BCE, the city became a major staging point on the northern Silk Road. It also became a hub and several famous Persian poets and scientists came from this city. Khujand was captured by the Muslim armies in the early 8th century under Qutayba ibn Muslim, in the late 9th century, however, it reverted to local rule and eventually incorporated into the Samanid Empire. It came under the rule of the Kara-Khanid Khanate in 999 but after the division of Kara Khanids in 1042, it was part of Eastern Kara Khanids. Karakhitans conquered it in 1137, but it passed to Khwarazmshahs in 1211, in the 14th century, the city was part of the Chagatai Khanate until it was incorporated into the Timurid Dynasty in the late 14th century. The Shaybanid dynasty of Bukhara next annexed Khojand, until it was taken over by the Kokand Khanate in 1802, in 1866, as most of Central Asia was occupied by Russian Empire, the city became part of the Russian Governorate of Turkestan. The threat of forced conscription during World War I led to protests in the city in July 1916, in 1929, it was incorporated into the Soviet Republic of Tajikistan after being part of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic between 1924 and 1929. The city was renamed Leninabad on 10 January 1936 and it remained part of the Soviet Union until 1991, with the independence of Tajikistan, Khujand became the second largest city in the nation. It reverted to its original name in 1992 after the breakup of the Soviet Union. In 1996 the city experienced the Ashurov protests during which citizens called for the President, the popular protests were followed by a protest from the citys prisoners, many of whom had been sentenced to long jail terms for minor crimes and who were living in poor conditions. The protest led to the Khujand prison riot in which between 24 and 150 prisoners were killed, in the early 2000s many residents of Khujand had little to no access to water, and what water they did have was unsafe to drink and had to be boiled. Residents pay for their supply, which in turn helps Khujands municipal water company to continue to renovate. The project is in its stage of development, and should be completed by 2017. Khujand Airport has regularly scheduled flights to Dushanbe as well as international destinations. There is also a connection between Khujand and Samarkand in Uzbekistan on the way to Dushanbe
13.
Tashkent
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Tashkent is the capital and largest city of Uzbekistan. The officially registered population of the city in 2012 was about 2,309,300, due to its position in Central Asia, Tashkent came under Sogdian and Turkic influence early in its history, before Islam in the 8th century AD. After its destruction by Genghis Khan in 1219, the city was rebuilt, in 1865 it was conquered by the Russian Empire, and in Soviet times witnessed major growth and demographic changes due to forced deportations from throughout the Soviet Union. Today, as the capital of an independent Uzbekistan, Tashkent retains a multi-ethnic population with ethnic Uzbeks as the majority, during its long history, Tashkent has had various changes in names and political and religious affiliations. Tashkent was settled by ancient people as an oasis on the Chirchik River, in ancient times, this area contained Beitian, probably the summer capital of the Kangju confederacy. In pre-Islamic and early Islamic times, the town and the province were known as Chach, the Shahnameh of Ferdowsi also refers to the city as Chach. Later the town came to be known as Chachkand/Chashkand, meaning Chach City, the principality of Chach had a square citadel built around the 5th to 3rd centuries BC, some 8 kilometres south of the Syr Darya River. By the 7th century AD, Chach had more than 30 towns, the Buddhist monk Xuánzàng 玄奘, who travelled from China to India through Central Asia, mentioned the name of the city as Zhěshí 赭時. The Chinese chronicles Suí shū 隋書, Běi shǐ 北史 and Táng shū 唐書, in the early 8th century, the region was conquered by Muslim Arabs. The modern Turkic name of Tashkent comes from Kara-Khanid rule in the 10th century, after the 16th century, the name evolved from Chachkand/Chashkand to Tashkand. The modern spelling of Tashkent reflects Russian orthography and 20th-century Soviet influence, the city was destroyed by Genghis Khan in 1219 and lost much of its population as a result of the Mongols destruction of the Khwarezmid Empire in 1220. Under the Timurid and subsequent Shaybanid dynasties the citys population and culture gradually revived as a prominent strategic center of scholarship, commerce, in 1809, Tashkent was annexed to the Khanate of Kokand. At the time, Tashkent had a population of around 100,000 and was considered the richest city in Central Asia and it prospered greatly through trade with Russia, but chafed under Kokand’s high taxes. The Tashkent clergy also favored the clergy of Bukhara over that of Kokand, however, before the Emir of Bukhara could capitalize on this discontent, the Russian army arrived. While a small contingent staged an attack, the main force penetrated the walls. Although defense was stiff, the Russians captured the city two days of heavy fighting and the loss of only 25 dead as opposed to several thousand of the defenders. Chernyayev, dubbed the Lion of Tashkent by city elders, staged a campaign to win the population over. The Tsar liberally rewarded Chernyayev and his men with medals and bonuses, but regarded the general as a loose cannon
14.
Turkistan (city)
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Turkistan, formerly known as Turkestan, is a city in the South Kazakhstan Region of Kazakhstan, near the Syr Darya river. It is situated 160 km north-west of Shymkent on the Trans-Aral Railway between Kyzylorda to the north and Tashkent to the south and its population has increased within ten years from 102,505 to 142,899. Turkistan is one of Kazakhstans historic cities with a record dating back to the 4th century. During the Han dynasty it may even have been Beitan, the capital of ancient Kangju. It became a commercial centre after the demise of Otrar. Because of his influence and in his memory the city became an important centre of spirituality, other important historical sites in the city include a medieval bath-house and four other mausoleums, one dedicated to Timurs granddaughter and three to Kazakh khans. Before the Russians came in the 19th century, Turkistan lay on the frontier of the settled Perso-Islamic oasis culture of Transoxiana to the south, in the 16th to 18th centuries Turkestan became the capital of the Kazakh Khanate. Finally, this city was conquered in Kokand khanate by Russian General Veryovkin in 1864, when Turkistan fell to the Russian Empire it was incorporated into the Syr-Darya Oblast of the Governor-Generalship of Russian Turkestan. When the Tsarist regime fell in 1917-18 it was part of the Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic before being returned Kazakhs as a city of Kazakh SSR in 1924. The city attracts thousands of pilgrims, according to a regional tradition, three pilgrimages to Turkistan are equivalent to one hajj to Mecca. The Saint was held in such reverence that the city was known as the Second Mecca of the East, modern-day Turkistan has a population of 85,600. The population rose by 10% from 1989 to 99, making it the second fastest-growing town in Kazakhstan, the road trip from the nearest airport at Shymkent takes about two hours. Turkestan experiences a climate with short, cold winters and long. The vast majority of the precipitation falls between late autumn and late spring. Mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasavi Hill, John E, through the Jade Gate to Rome, A Study of the Silk Routes during the Later Han Dynasty, 1st to 2nd Centuries CE. Hulsewé, A. F. P. and Loewe, M. A. N.1979, china in Central Asia, The Early Stage 125 BC – AD23, an annotated translation of chapters 61 and 96 of the History of the Former Han Dynasty. Privratsky, Bruce G. Muslim Turkistan, Kazak Religion and Collective Memory Curzon Press, Richmond, Surrey UK
15.
Baikonur
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Baikonur, formerly known as Leninsk, is a city of republic significance in Kazakhstan on the right bank of the Syr Darya river, rented and administered by the Russian Federation. It was constructed to service the Baikonur Cosmodrome and was officially renamed Baikonur by Russian president Boris Yeltsin on December 20,1995, during the Soviet period, it was sometimes referred to as Zvezdograd. In 2009, the population of Baikonur was 36,175, while in 1999, the rented area is an ellipse measuring 90 kilometres east to west by 85 km north to south, with the cosmodrome situated at the areas centre. The original Baikonur is a town a few hundred kilometres northeast of the present location. Starting with Vostok 1 in April 1961, the site was given this name to cause confusion. Baikonurs railway station predates the base and retains the old name of Tyuratam and this was the original Soviet railway station on the Moscow to Tashkent Railway that the Cosmodrome was initially named after. The fortunes of the city have varied according to those of the Soviet or Russian space program, foreign visitors will need pre-approval from the Russian authorities to visit both the town of Baikonur itself and the Cosmodrome. Note that said approval is completely separate from just having a Russian Visa, Generally speaking, the Soviet government established the Nauchno-Issledovatelskii Ispytatelnyi Poligon N.5, or Scientific-Research Test Range N.5 by its decree of 12 February 1955. The U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance plane found and photographed the Tyuratam missile test range for the first time on 5 August 1957, see right for a composite satellite image of the early Tyuratam launch complex, the cosmodrome. List of closed cities Testing of rocket and space technology - the business of my life Events and facts - A. I, kuznetsk, Voronezh, IPF Voronezh,1997, ISBN 5-89981-117-X, Unknown Baikonur - edited by B. I. ISBN 5-8155-0051-8 Rocket and space feat Baikonur - Vladimir Порошков, the Patriot publishers 2007, ostashev, Sergey Pavlovich Korolyov - The Genius of the 20th Century —2010 M. of Public Educational Institution of Higher Professional Training MGUL ISBN 978-5-8135-0510-2. Bank of the Universe - edited by Boltenko A. C
16.
Fergana Valley
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The Fergana Valley is a valley in Central Asia spread across eastern Uzbekistan, southern Kyrgyzstan and northern Tajikistan. Divided into three republics of the former Soviet Union, the valley is ethnically diverse and in the early 21st century was the scene of ethnic conflict, the valleys history stretches back over 2300 years, when its population was conquered by Greco-Bactrian invaders from the west. Chinese chroniclers date its towns to more than 2,100 years ago and it was home to Babur, founder of the Mughal Dynasty, tying the region to modern Afghanistan and South Asia. The Russian Empire conquered the valley at the end of the 19th century and its three Soviet republics gained independence in 1991. The area largely remains Muslim, populated by ethnic Uzbek, Tajik, historically there have also been substantial numbers of Russian, Kashgarians, Kipchaks, Bukharan Jews and Romani minorities. Mass cotton cultivation, introduced by the Soviets, remains central to the economy, along with a range of grains, fruits. There is a history of stock breeding, leatherwork, and a growing mining sector, including deposits of coal, iron, sulfur, gypsum, rock-salt, naphtha. The Fergana Valley is a depression in Central Asia, between the mountain systems of the Tien-Shan in the north and the Gissar-Alai in the south. The valley is approximately 300 kilometres long and up to 70 kilometres wide and its position makes it a separate geographic zone. The valley owes its fertility to two rivers, the Naryn and the Kara Darya, which unite in the valley, near Namangan, numerous other tributaries of these rivers exist in the valley including the Sokh River. This expanse of quicksand, covering an area of 1,900 km2, under the influence of south-west winds, some of the sediments are marine carbonates and clays. The faults are upthrusts and overthrusts, anticlines associated with these faults form traps for petroleum and natural gas, which has been discovered in 52 small fields. The climate of this valley is dry and warm, in March the temperature reaches 20 °C, and then rapidly rises to 35 °C in June, July and August. During the five months following April precipitation is rare, but increases in frequency starting in October, snow and frost, down to -20 °C occurs in December and January. The independent and warlike Sogdiana formed a border region insulating the Achaemenid Persians from the nomadic Scythians to the north and it was later ruled by Seleucids before secession of Bactria. After 250 BC, the city remained in contact with the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom centered on Bactria. Several statuettes and representations of Greek soldiers have been north of the Tien Shan, on the doorstep to China. Of the Greco-Bactrians, the Greek historian Strabo too writes that, they extended their empire even as far as the Seres, after 155 BC, the Yuezhi were pushed into Fergana by neighbors from the north and east
17.
North Aral Sea
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The North Aral Sea is the portion of the former Aral Sea that is fed by the Syr Darya River. It split from the South Aral Sea in 1986 as water levels dropped due to diversion for agriculture. The poorly built Dike Kokaral intended to contain the North Aral Sea and save its fisheries failed twice, since then, water levels have risen faster than expected and fish stocks have increased. Plans to build a dike to increase water levels further were due to begin in 2010. In 1986, due to a loss of water, the Aral Sea split into northern and southern parts. There is now an effort in Kazakhstan to save and replenish the North Aral Sea. As part of effort, a dam project was completed in 2005, in 2008. After the fall of the Soviet Union, the government of independent Kazakhstan decided to restore the lake fed by Syr Darya. In 2003, the lake was 30 m in depth and 2,550 km2 in area, by 2008 it had reached 42 m in depth and 3,300 km2 in area
18.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
19.
Central Asia
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Central Asia stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to China in the east and from Afghanistan in the south to Russia in the north. It is also referred to as the -stans as the five countries generally considered to be within the region all have names ending with the Persian suffix -stan. Central Asias five former Soviet republics are Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Central Asia has historically been closely tied to its nomadic peoples and the Silk Road. It has acted as a crossroads for the movement of people, goods, the Silk Road connected Muslim lands with the people of Europe, India, and China. This crossroads position has intensified the conflict between tribalism and traditionalism and modernization, in pre-Islamic and early Islamic times, Central Asia was predominantly Iranian, peopled by Eastern Iranian-speaking Bactrians, Sogdians and Chorasmians and the semi-nomadic Scythians and Parthians. Central Asia is sometimes referred to as Turkestan, the idea of Central Asia as a distinct region of the world was introduced in 1843 by the geographer Alexander von Humboldt. The borders of Central Asia are subject to multiple definitions, historically built political geography and geoculture are two significant parameters widely used in the scholarly literature about the definitions of the Central Asia. The most limited definition was the one of the Soviet Union. This definition was also used outside the USSR during this period. However, the Russian culture has two terms, Средняя Азия and Центральная Азия. Since then, this has become the most common definition of Central Asia, the UNESCO general history of Central Asia, written just before the collapse of the USSR, defines the region based on climate and uses far larger borders. An alternative method is to define the region based on ethnicity and these areas include Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, the Turkic regions of southern Siberia, the five republics, and Afghan Turkestan. Afghanistan as a whole, the northern and western areas of Pakistan, the Tibetans and Ladakhi are also included. Insofar, most of the peoples are considered the indigenous peoples of the vast region. Central Asia is a large region of varied geography, including high passes and mountains, vast deserts. The vast steppe areas of Central Asia are considered together with the steppes of Eastern Europe as a geographical zone known as the Eurasian Steppe. Much of the land of Central Asia is too dry or too rugged for farming, the Gobi desert extends from the foot of the Pamirs, 77° E, to the Great Khingan Mountains, 116°–118° E. Central Asia has the following geographic extremes, The worlds northernmost desert, at Buurug Deliin Els, Mongolia, the Northern Hemispheres southernmost permafrost, at Erdenetsogt sum, Mongolia, 46°17′ N
20.
Tian Shan
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The Tian Shan, meaning the Mountain of Heaven or the Heavenly Mountain, is a large system of mountain ranges located in Central Asia. The highest peak in the Tian Shan is Jengish Chokusu,7,439 metres, the Chinese name for Tian Shan may have been derived from the Xiongnu word Qilian – according to Tang commentator Yan Shigu, Qilian is the Xiongnu word for sky or heaven. The Tannu-Ola mountains in Tuva has the meaning in its name. Tian Shan is sacred in Tengrism, and its second-highest peak is known as Khan Tengri which may be translated as Lord of the Spirits. Tian Shan is north and west of the Taklamakan Desert and directly north of the Tarim Basin in the region of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan. In the south it links up with the Pamir Mountains and to north, Chinese cartography from the Han Dynasty to the present agrees, with the Tian Shan including the Bogda Shan and Barkol ranges. The Tian Shan are a part of the Himalayan orogenic belt and they are one of the longest mountain ranges in Central Asia and stretch some 2,800 kilometres eastward from Tashkent in Uzbekistan. The highest peak in the Tian Shan is the Victory Peak which, the Tian Shans second highest peak, Khan Tengri, straddles the Kazakhstan-Kyrgyzstan border and at 7,010 metres is the highest point of Kazakhstan. Mountaineers class these as the two most northerly peaks over 7,000 metres in the world, the Torugart Pass, at 3,752 metres, is located at the border between Kyrgyzstan and Chinas Xinjiang province. The forested Alatau ranges, which are at an altitude in the northern part of the Tian Shan, are inhabited by pastoral tribes that speak Turkic languages. The Tian Shan are separated from the Tibetan Plateau by the Taklimakan Desert, the major rivers rising in the Tian Shan are the Syr Darya, the Ili River and the Tarim River. The Aksu Canyon is a feature in the northwestern Tian Shan. Continuous permafrost is found in the Tian Shan starting at the elevation of about 3. One of the first Europeans to visit and the first to describe the Tian Shan in detail was the Russian explorer Peter Semenov, who did so in the 1850s. Glaciers in the Tian Shan Mountains have been shrinking and have lost 27%, or 5.4 billion tons annually. It is estimated that by 2050 half of the glaciers will have melted. The Tian Shan have a number of named ranges which are mentioned separately. In China the Tian Shan starts north of Kumul City with the U-shaped Barkol Mountains, then the Bogda Shan run from 350 to 40 kilometres east of Ürümqi
21.
Aral Sea
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The Aral Sea was an endorheic lake lying between Kazakhstan in the north and Uzbekistan in the south. The name roughly translates as Sea of Islands, referring to over 1,100 islands that once dotted its waters, in the Turkic languages aral means island, the Aral Sea drainage basin encompasses Uzbekistan and parts of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Satellite images taken by NASA in August 2014 revealed that for the first time in history the eastern basin of the Aral Sea had completely dried up. The eastern basin is now called the Aralkum Desert, in an ongoing effort in Kazakhstan to save and replenish the North Aral Sea, a dam project was completed in 2005, in 2008, the water level in this lake had risen by 12 m compared to 2003. Salinity has dropped, and fish are found in sufficient numbers for some fishing to be viable. The maximum depth of the North Aral Sea is 42 m, the shrinking of the Aral Sea has been called one of the planets worst environmental disasters. The regions once-prosperous fishing industry has been destroyed, bringing unemployment. The Aral Sea region is heavily polluted, with consequential serious public health problems. The historical documents of the development of the Aral Sea have added by UNESCO to its Memory of the World Register as a source to study this environmental tragedy. The Aral Sea formed about 5.5 million years ago due to a fall in sea level, the Syr Darya formed a large lake in the Kyzyl Kum during the Pliocene known as the Mynbulak depression. Most of the area around the Aral Sea was inhabited by nomads who left few written records. However, the Oxus delta to the south has a history under the name of Khwarezm. It used to be the westernmost border of Tang dynasty China, Russian naval presence on the Aral Sea started in 1847, with the founding of Raimsk, which was soon renamed Fort Aralsk, near the mouth of the Syr Darya. Soon, the Imperial Russian Navy started deploying its vessels on the sea, owing to the Aral Sea basin not being connected to other bodies of water, the vessels had to be disassembled in Orenburg on the Ural River, shipped overland to Aralsk, and then reassembled. The first two ships, assembled in 1847, were the two-masted schooners named Nikolai and Mikhail, the former was a warship, the latter was a merchant vessel meant to serve the establishment of the fisheries on the great lake. In 1848, these two surveyed the northern part of the sea. In the same year, a warship, the Constantine, was assembled. Commanded by Lt. Alexey Butakov, the Constantine completed the survey of the entire Aral Sea over the two years
22.
Endorheic basin
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Such a basin may also be referred to as a closed or terminal basin or as an internal drainage system. However, in a basin, rain that falls within it does not flow out but may only leave the drainage system by evaporation. The bottom of such a basin is occupied by a salt lake or salt pan. Endorheic regions, in contrast to regions which flow to the ocean in geologically defined patterns, are closed hydrologic systems. Their surface waters drain to inland terminal locations where the water evaporates or seeps into the ground, endorheic water bodies include some of the largest lakes in the world, such as the Aral Sea and the Caspian Sea, the worlds largest saline inland sea. Most endorheic basins are arid, although there are notable exceptions, such as the Valley of Mexico, the Lake Tahoe region. Endorheic basins can be massively and rapidly affected by change and excessive water removal. An exorheic lake naturally remains at a level, so water flow into the lake may be many times more than is needed to maintain its present size. In contrast, an endorheic basin does not have enough inflow that it overflows to the ocean, endorheic lakes are bodies of water that do not flow into the sea. Most of the water falling on Earth finds its way to the oceans through a network of rivers, lakes, however, there is a class of water bodies that are located in closed or endorheic watersheds where the topography prevents their drainage to the oceans. These endorheic watersheds are often called terminal lakes or sink lakes, endorheic lakes are usually in the interior of a landmass, far from an ocean in areas of relatively low rainfall. Their watersheds are often confined by natural geologic land formations such as a mountain range, the inland water flows into dry watersheds where the water evaporates, leaving a high concentration of minerals and other inflow erosion products. Over time this input of erosion products can cause the lake to become relatively saline. Endorheic regions can occur in any climate but are most commonly found in desert locations, the Black Sea was likely such a lake, having once been an independent hydrological system before the Mediterranean Sea broke through the terrain separating the two. Lake Bonneville was another such lake, overflowing its basin in the Bonneville flood, malheur/Harney Lake in Oregon is normally cut off from drainage to the ocean, but has an outflow channel to the Malheur River that is normally dry, but flows in years of peak precipitation. Examples of relatively humid regions in endorheic basins often exist at high elevation and these regions tend to be marshy and are subject to substantial flooding in wet years. The area containing Mexico City is one case, with annual precipitation of 850 mm. Endorheic regions tend to be far inland with their boundaries defined by mountains or other features that block their access to oceans
23.
Amu Darya
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The Amu Darya, also called the Amu River and historically known by its Latin name, Oxus, is a major river in Central Asia. It is formed by the junction of the Vakhsh and Panj rivers, at Qaleh-ye Panjeh in Afghanistan, in ancient times, the river was regarded as the boundary between Greater Iran and Turan. In classical antiquity, the river was known as the Ōxus in Latin and Ὦξος Ôxos in Greek—a clear derivative of Vakhsh, in Vedic Sanskrit, the river is also referred to as Vakṣu. The Avestan texts too refer to the River as Yakhsha/Vakhsha, in Middle Persian sources of the Sassanid period the river is known as Wehrōd. The name Amu is said to have come from the city of Āmul, in modern Turkmenistan. Medieval Arabic and Muslim sources call the river Jayhoun which is derived from Gihon, however, this name is no longer used. Hara and to the river of Gozan (that is to say, the Amu. the Gozan River is the River Balkh, i. e. the Oxus or the Amu Darya. and were brought into Halah, and Habor, and Hara, and to the river Gozan. The rivers total length is 2,400 kilometres and its drainage basin totals 534,739 square kilometres in area, the river is navigable for over 1,450 kilometres. All of the water comes from the mountains in the south where annual precipitation can be over 1,000 mm. An ice cave at the end of the Wakhjir valley, in the Wakhan Corridor, in the Pamir Mountains, a glacier turns into the Wakhan River and joins the Pamir River about 50 kilometres downstream. Therefore, the Chelab stream may be considered the true source or parent stream of the Oxus. The Panj River forms the border of Afghanistan and Tajikistan and it flows west to Ishkashim where it turns north and then north-west through the Pamirs passing the Tajikistan–Afghanistan Friendship Bridge. It subsequently forms the border of Afghanistan and Uzbekistan for about 200 kilometres, passing Termez and it delineates the border of Afghanistan and Turkmenistan for another 100 kilometres before it flows into Turkmenistan at Atamurat. As the Amudarya, it flows across Turkmenistan south to north, passing Türkmenabat, use of water from the Amu Darya for irrigation has been a major contributing factor to the shrinking of the Aral Sea since the late 1950s. Historical records state that in different periods, the river flowed into the Aral Sea, into the Caspian Sea, about 1,385,045 square kilometres of land is drained by the Amu Darya into the Aral Sea endorheic basin. This includes most of Tajikistan, the southwest corner of Kyrgyzstan, the northeast corner of Afghanistan, part of the Amu Daryas drainage divide in Tajikistan forms that countrys border with China and Pakistan. About 61% of the lies within Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. Of the area drained by the Amu Darya, only about 200,000 square kilometres actively contribute water to the river and this is because many of the rivers major tributaries have been diverted, and much of the rivers drainage is dominated by outlying desert and steppe
24.
Soviet Union
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The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991. It was nominally a union of national republics, but its government. The Soviet Union had its roots in the October Revolution of 1917 and this established the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and started the Russian Civil War between the revolutionary Reds and the counter-revolutionary Whites. In 1922, the communists were victorious, forming the Soviet Union with the unification of the Russian, Transcaucasian, Ukrainian, following Lenins death in 1924, a collective leadership and a brief power struggle, Joseph Stalin came to power in the mid-1920s. Stalin suppressed all opposition to his rule, committed the state ideology to Marxism–Leninism. As a result, the country underwent a period of rapid industrialization and collectivization which laid the foundation for its victory in World War II and postwar dominance of Eastern Europe. Shortly before World War II, Stalin signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact agreeing to non-aggression with Nazi Germany, in June 1941, the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, opening the largest and bloodiest theater of war in history. Soviet war casualties accounted for the highest proportion of the conflict in the effort of acquiring the upper hand over Axis forces at battles such as Stalingrad. Soviet forces eventually captured Berlin in 1945, the territory overtaken by the Red Army became satellite states of the Eastern Bloc. The Cold War emerged by 1947 as the Soviet bloc confronted the Western states that united in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949. Following Stalins death in 1953, a period of political and economic liberalization, known as de-Stalinization and Khrushchevs Thaw, the country developed rapidly, as millions of peasants were moved into industrialized cities. The USSR took a lead in the Space Race with Sputnik 1, the first ever satellite, and Vostok 1. In the 1970s, there was a brief détente of relations with the United States, the war drained economic resources and was matched by an escalation of American military aid to Mujahideen fighters. In the mid-1980s, the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, sought to reform and liberalize the economy through his policies of glasnost. The goal was to preserve the Communist Party while reversing the economic stagnation, the Cold War ended during his tenure, and in 1989 Soviet satellite countries in Eastern Europe overthrew their respective communist regimes. This led to the rise of strong nationalist and separatist movements inside the USSR as well, in August 1991, a coup détat was attempted by Communist Party hardliners. It failed, with Russian President Boris Yeltsin playing a role in facing down the coup. On 25 December 1991, Gorbachev resigned and the twelve constituent republics emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union as independent post-Soviet states
25.
Ancient Greek
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Ancient Greek includes the forms of Greek used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around the 9th century BC to the 6th century AD. It is often divided into the Archaic period, Classical period. It is antedated in the second millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek, the language of the Hellenistic phase is known as Koine. Koine is regarded as a historical stage of its own, although in its earliest form it closely resembled Attic Greek. Prior to the Koine period, Greek of the classic and earlier periods included several regional dialects, Ancient Greek was the language of Homer and of fifth-century Athenian historians, playwrights, and philosophers. It has contributed many words to English vocabulary and has been a subject of study in educational institutions of the Western world since the Renaissance. This article primarily contains information about the Epic and Classical phases of the language, Ancient Greek was a pluricentric language, divided into many dialects. The main dialect groups are Attic and Ionic, Aeolic, Arcadocypriot, some dialects are found in standardized literary forms used in literature, while others are attested only in inscriptions. There are also several historical forms, homeric Greek is a literary form of Archaic Greek used in the epic poems, the Iliad and Odyssey, and in later poems by other authors. Homeric Greek had significant differences in grammar and pronunciation from Classical Attic, the origins, early form and development of the Hellenic language family are not well understood because of a lack of contemporaneous evidence. Several theories exist about what Hellenic dialect groups may have existed between the divergence of early Greek-like speech from the common Proto-Indo-European language and the Classical period and they have the same general outline, but differ in some of the detail. The invasion would not be Dorian unless the invaders had some relationship to the historical Dorians. The invasion is known to have displaced population to the later Attic-Ionic regions, the Greeks of this period believed there were three major divisions of all Greek people—Dorians, Aeolians, and Ionians, each with their own defining and distinctive dialects. Often non-west is called East Greek, Arcadocypriot apparently descended more closely from the Mycenaean Greek of the Bronze Age. Boeotian had come under a strong Northwest Greek influence, and can in some respects be considered a transitional dialect, thessalian likewise had come under Northwest Greek influence, though to a lesser degree. Most of the dialect sub-groups listed above had further subdivisions, generally equivalent to a city-state and its surrounding territory, Doric notably had several intermediate divisions as well, into Island Doric, Southern Peloponnesus Doric, and Northern Peloponnesus Doric. The Lesbian dialect was Aeolic Greek and this dialect slowly replaced most of the older dialects, although Doric dialect has survived in the Tsakonian language, which is spoken in the region of modern Sparta. Doric has also passed down its aorist terminations into most verbs of Demotic Greek, by about the 6th century AD, the Koine had slowly metamorphosized into Medieval Greek
26.
Alexander the Great
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Alexander III of Macedon, commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon and a member of the Argead dynasty. He was born in Pella in 356 BC and succeeded his father Philip II to the throne at the age of twenty and he was undefeated in battle and is widely considered one of historys most successful military commanders. During his youth, Alexander was tutored by Aristotle until the age of 16, after Philips assassination in 336 BC, he succeeded his father to the throne and inherited a strong kingdom and an experienced army. Alexander was awarded the generalship of Greece and used this authority to launch his fathers Panhellenic project to lead the Greeks in the conquest of Persia, in 334 BC, he invaded the Achaemenid Empire and began a series of campaigns that lasted ten years. Following the conquest of Anatolia, Alexander broke the power of Persia in a series of battles, most notably the battles of Issus. He subsequently overthrew Persian King Darius III and conquered the Achaemenid Empire in its entirety, at that point, his empire stretched from the Adriatic Sea to the Indus River. He sought to reach the ends of the world and the Great Outer Sea and invaded India in 326 BC and he eventually turned back at the demand of his homesick troops. Alexander died in Babylon in 323 BC, the city that he planned to establish as his capital, without executing a series of planned campaigns that would have begun with an invasion of Arabia. In the years following his death, a series of civil wars tore his empire apart, resulting in the establishment of several states ruled by the Diadochi, Alexanders surviving generals, Alexanders legacy includes the cultural diffusion which his conquests engendered, such as Greco-Buddhism. He founded some twenty cities that bore his name, most notably Alexandria in Egypt, Alexander became legendary as a classical hero in the mold of Achilles, and he features prominently in the history and mythic traditions of both Greek and non-Greek cultures. He became the measure against which military leaders compared themselves, and he is often ranked among the most influential people in human history. He was the son of the king of Macedon, Philip II, and his wife, Olympias. Although Philip had seven or eight wives, Olympias was his wife for some time. Several legends surround Alexanders birth and childhood, sometime after the wedding, Philip is said to have seen himself, in a dream, securing his wifes womb with a seal engraved with a lions image. Plutarch offered a variety of interpretations of dreams, that Olympias was pregnant before her marriage, indicated by the sealing of her womb. On the day Alexander was born, Philip was preparing a siege on the city of Potidea on the peninsula of Chalcidice. That same day, Philip received news that his general Parmenion had defeated the combined Illyrian and Paeonian armies, and it was also said that on this day, the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, burnt down. This led Hegesias of Magnesia to say that it had burnt down because Artemis was away, such legends may have emerged when Alexander was king, and possibly at his own instigation, to show that he was superhuman and destined for greatness from conception
27.
Old Persian
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The Old Persian language is one of the two directly attested Old Iranian languages. Old Persian appears primarily in the inscriptions, clay tablets, recent research into the vast Persepolis Fortification Archive at the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago have unearthed Old Persian tablets. This new text shows that the Old Persian language was a language in use for practical recording. As a written language, Old Persian is attested in royal Achaemenid inscriptions and it is an Iranian language and as such a member of the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family. The oldest known written in Old Persian is from the Behistun Inscriptions. Old Persian is one of the oldest Indo-European languages which is attested in original texts, the oldest date of use of Old Persian as a spoken language is not precisely known. Their language, Old Persian, became the language of the Achaemenid kings. In these records of the 9th century BCE, Parsuwash are first mentioned in the area of Lake Urmia in the records of Shalmaneser III. The exact identity of the Parsuwash is not known for certain and he relates that the Armenian people spoke a language that to his ear sounded like the language of the Persians. Old Persian belongs to the Iranian language family which is a branch of the Indo-Iranian language family, the common ancestors of Indo-Iranians came from Central Asia sometime in the first half of the 2nd millennium BCE. The former are the languages in that group which have left written original texts while Median is known mostly from loanwords in Old Persian. Old Persian subsequently evolved into Middle Persian, which is in turn the ancestor of New Persian. Unlike the other languages and dialects, ancient and modern, of the Iranian group such as Avestan, Parthian, Soghdian, Kurdish, Pashto, Old, Middle and New Persian represent one and the same language at three states of its history. It had its origin in Fars and is differentiated by dialectical features, Middle Persian, also sometimes called Pahlavi, is a direct continuation of old Persian, and was used as the written official language of the country. Comparison of the evolution at each stage of the shows great simplification in grammar. However, New Persian is a descendent of Middle and Old Persian. Old Persian presumably has a Median language substrate, the Median element is readily identifiable because it did not share in the developments that were peculiar to Old Persian. Median forms are only in personal or geographical names and some are typically from religious vocabulary
28.
Early Muslim conquests
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The early Muslim conquests also referred to as the Arab conquests and early Islamic conquests began with the Islamic Prophet Muhammad in the 7th century. He established a new unified polity in the Arabian Peninsula which under the subsequent Rashidun, the resulting empire stretched from the borders of China and the Indian subcontinent, across Central Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, Sicily, and the Iberian Peninsula, to the Pyrenees. The Muslim conquests brought about the collapse of the Sassanid Empire, the reasons for the Muslim success are hard to reconstruct in hindsight, primarily because only fragmentary sources from the period have survived. Most historians agree that the Sassanid Persian and Byzantine Roman empires were militarily and economically exhausted from decades of fighting one another, in the case of Byzantine Egypt, Palestine and Syria, these lands had only a few years before being reclaimed from the Persians. The estimates for the size of the Islamic Caliphate suggest it was more than thirteen million square kilometers, the last of these wars ended with victory for the Byzantines, Emperor Heraclius regained all lost territories, and restored the True Cross to Jerusalem in 629. According to George Liska, the unnecessarily prolonged Byzantine–Persian conflict opened the way for Islam, in late 620s Muhammad had already managed to conquer and unify much of Arabia under Muslim rule, and it was under his leadership that the first Muslim-Byzantine skirmishes took place. The province of Syria was the first to be wrested from Byzantine control, on the heels of their victory, the Arab armies took Damascus in 636, with Baalbek, Homs, and Hama to follow soon afterwards. However, other fortified towns continued to resist despite the rout of the army and had to be conquered individually. Jerusalem fell in 638, Caesarea in 640, while others held out until 641, the Byzantine province of Egypt held strategic importance for its grain production, naval yards, and as a base for further conquests in Africa. The Muslim general Amr ibn al-As began the conquest of the province on his own initiative in 639, nevertheless, the province was scarcely urbanized and the defenders lost hope of receiving reinforcements from Constantinople when the emperor Heraclius died in 641. The last major center to fall into Arab hands was Alexandria, according to Hugh Kennedy, Of all the early Muslim conquests, that of Egypt was the swiftest and most complete. Seldom in history can so massive a political change have happened so swiftly, after an Arab incursion into Sasanian territories, the energetic king Yazdgerd III, who had just ascended the Persian throne, raised an army to resist the invasion. However, the Persians suffered a defeat at the Battle of al-Qadisiyyah in 636. As a result, the Arab-Muslims gained control over the whole of Iraq, including Ctesiphon, the Persian forces withdrew over the Zagros mountains and the Arab army pursued them across the Iranian plateau, where the fate of the Sasanian empire was sealed at the Battle of Nahavand. In the aftermath of their victory over the army, the invaders still had to contend with a collection of militarily weak. It took decades to bring all under control of the caliphate. The rapidity of the early conquests has received various explanations, contemporary Christian writers conceived them as Gods punishment visited on their fellow Christians for their sins. Early Muslim historians viewed them as a reflection of religious zeal of the conquerors, according to Chase F. Robinson, it is likely that Muslim forces were often outnumbered, but, unlike their opponents, they were fast, well coordinated and highly motivated
29.
Paradise
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Paradise is the term for a place of timeless harmony. Paradise is a place of contentment, a land of luxury, Paradise is often described as a higher place, the holiest place, in contrast to this world, or underworlds such as Hell. In eschatological contexts, paradise is imagined as an abode of the virtuous dead, in Christian and Islamic understanding, Heaven is a paradisaical relief. In old Egyptian beliefs, the otherworld is Aaru, the reed-fields of ideal hunting and fishing grounds where the dead lived after judgment, for the Celts, it was the Fortunate Isle of Mag Mell. For the classical Greeks, the Elysian fields was a land of plenty where the heroic. The Vedic Indians held that the body was destroyed by fire. In the Zoroastrian Avesta, the Best Existence and the House of Song are places of the righteous dead, on the other hand, in cosmological contexts paradise describes the world before it was tainted by evil. The concept is a theme in art and literature, particularly of the pre-Enlightenment era, the word paradise entered English from the French paradis, inherited from the Latin paradisus, from Greek parádeisos, from an Old Iranian *paridayda- walled enclosure. By the 6th/5th century BCE, the Old Iranian word had been adopted as Assyrian pardesu domain and it subsequently came to indicate the expansive walled gardens of the First Persian Empire. The term eventually appeared in Greek as parádeisos park for animals in the Anabasis of the early 4th century BCE Athenian Xenophon, aramaic pardaysa similarly reflects royal park. Hebrew פרדס appears thrice in the Tanakh, in the Song of Solomon 4,13, Ecclesiastes 2,5, in those contexts it could be interpreted as an orchard or a fruit garden. In the Septuagint, Greek παράδεισος parádeisos was used to translate both Hebrew pardes and Hebrew gan, garden, it is from this usage that the use of paradise to refer to the Garden of Eden derives. The same usage appears in Arabic and in the Quran as firdaws فردوس. The words etymology is derived from a PIE root *dheigʷ to stick. It is reflected in Avestan as pairi-daêza-, the literal meaning of this Eastern Old Iranian language word is walled, from pairi- around and -diz to make, form, build. The word is not attested in other Old Iranian languages, the idea of a walled enclosure was not preserved in most Iranian usage, and generally came to refer to a plantation or other cultivated area, not necessarily walled. For example, the Old Iranian word survives as Pardis in New Persian as well as its derivative pālīz, later in Second Temple era Judaism paradise came to be associated with the Garden of Eden and prophesies of restoration of Eden, and transferred to heaven. The Septuagint uses the word around 30 times, both of Eden, and of Eden restored, in the Apocalypse of Moses, Adam and Eve are expelled from paradise after having been tricked by the serpent
30.
Jannah
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Jannah is the Islamic concept of paradise. This interpretation gave rise to one of the names of Allah — The Most Merciful. According to Islamic eschatology, after death, ones soul will reside in the grave until the resurrection on Yawm al-Qiyāmah or Judgment Day. Muslims believe that the treatment of the individual in the life of the grave will be according to his or her deeds in the worldly life, Jannah is often compared to Christian concepts of Heaven. According to Muslim belief, everything one longs for in this world will be there in Paradise, the highest level of Paradise is Firdaws, which is where the prophets, the martyrs, and the most truthful and pious people will dwell. In contrast to Jannah, the words Jahannam, Dozukh, there are many words in the Arabic language for both Heaven and Hell and those words also appear in the Quran and Hadith. Most of them have become part of the Islamic traditions, the descriptions of paradise are mentioned in significant detail in the Quran, Hadiths and traditional tafsīr. Besides the material notion of the paradise, those descriptions are also interpreted as allegories, the Persian theologian Al-Ghazali said, This life belongs to the world of earth and the world of visibility, the hereafter belongs to the world of transcendental and the world of beings. By this life I understand your state before death, by hereafter I understand your state after death, however, it is impossible to explain the world of beings in this life by any other means than allegories. The true beauty of paradise is also understood as the joy of beholding God, the Paradise is described as surrounded by eight principal gates, each level generally being divided into a hundred degrees. The highest level is known as firdaws and it will be entered first by Muhammad, then those who lived in poverty, and then the most pious. Entrants will be greeted by angels with salutations of peace or As-Salamu Alaykum, now how excellent is the final home. The Islamic texts describes life for its inhabitants as, one that is happy—without hurt, sorrow. Traditions relate that inhabitants will be of the age. In them are women limiting glances, untouched before them by man or jinni - So which of the favors of your Lord would you deny, - They will eat delicious food and drink, and every bowl will have a new taste. They will take eructation which will digest the food and there will be perfumed sweating for the digestion of water, inhabitants will rejoice in the company of their parents, spouses, and children —conversing and recalling the past. Those on the Right, what people they are, palaces are made from bricks of gold, silver, pearls, among other things. Traditions also note the presence of horses and camels of dazzling whiteness, large trees are described, mountains made of musk, between which rivers flow in valleys of pearl and ruby
31.
Arabic
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Arabic is a Central Semitic language that was first spoken in Iron Age northwestern Arabia and is now the lingua franca of the Arab world. Arabic is also the language of 1.7 billion Muslims. It is one of six languages of the United Nations. The modern written language is derived from the language of the Quran and it is widely taught in schools and universities, and is used to varying degrees in workplaces, government, and the media. The two formal varieties are grouped together as Literary Arabic, which is the language of 26 states. Modern Standard Arabic largely follows the standards of Quranic Arabic. Much of the new vocabulary is used to denote concepts that have arisen in the post-Quranic era, Arabic has influenced many languages around the globe throughout its history. During the Middle Ages, Literary Arabic was a vehicle of culture in Europe, especially in science, mathematics. As a result, many European languages have borrowed many words from it. Many words of Arabic origin are found in ancient languages like Latin. Balkan languages, including Greek, have acquired a significant number of Arabic words through contact with Ottoman Turkish. Arabic has also borrowed words from languages including Greek and Persian in medieval times. Arabic is a Central Semitic language, closely related to the Northwest Semitic languages, the Ancient South Arabian languages, the Semitic languages changed a great deal between Proto-Semitic and the establishment of the Central Semitic languages, particularly in grammar. Innovations of the Central Semitic languages—all maintained in Arabic—include, The conversion of the suffix-conjugated stative formation into a past tense, the conversion of the prefix-conjugated preterite-tense formation into a present tense. The elimination of other prefix-conjugated mood/aspect forms in favor of new moods formed by endings attached to the prefix-conjugation forms, the development of an internal passive. These features are evidence of descent from a hypothetical ancestor. In the southwest, various Central Semitic languages both belonging to and outside of the Ancient South Arabian family were spoken and it is also believed that the ancestors of the Modern South Arabian languages were also spoken in southern Arabia at this time. To the north, in the oases of northern Hijaz, Dadanitic and Taymanitic held some prestige as inscriptional languages, in Najd and parts of western Arabia, a language known to scholars as Thamudic C is attested
32.
Abu al-Ghazi Bahadur
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Abu al-Ghazi Bahadur was a khan of the Khanate of Khiva from 1643 to 1663. He spent ten years in Persia before becoming khan, and was well educated. He was born in Urgench, Khanate of Khiva, the son of ruler Arab Muhammad Khan and he fled to the Safavid court in Isfahan after a power struggle arose among him and his brothers. He lived there in exile from 1629 until 1639 studying Persian, in 1644 or 1645 he acceded to the throne, a position he would hold for twenty years. He died in Khiva in 1663, Abu al-Ghazi is known as the author of two historical works, Genealogy of the Turkmen Shajare-i Tarakime finished in 1661 and Genealogy of the Turks Shajare-i Türk finished in 1665. These are important sources for knowledge of Central Asian history. In the 19th and 20th centuries were published numerous critical translations of the Shajare-i Türk, the first critical translation, performed by professional scholars, was published in Kazan in 1825. The Turkish translation of the published in Kazan was done by philologist Vefik Ahmed Pasha. The most influential Western publication was Historie des Mogols et des Tatares par Aboul-Ghazi Behadour Khan, publiee, traduite et annotee par le baron Desmaisons and that observation, confirmed by other scholars, associated in the scientific literature the name of Maodun with the epic personality of the Oguz-Kagan. The literary significance of Shajare-i Türk is that Abu al-Ghazi openly spoke against Chaghatay literary language because it carried a strong Persian influence, Abu al-Ghazi language is easy, simple folk language of the Khiva Uzbeks and is quite different from the Chaghatay literary language. The style of Abu al-Ghazi, despite a scientific nature of his compositions, is distinguished by clarity and richness of vocabulary, and is interspersed with the falk Uzbek expressions and proverbs. Abu al-Ghazi son Abu al-Muzaffar Anusha Muhammad Bahadur reassigned to complete the work of his father Shajare-i Türk to a certain Mahmud bin Mulla Muhammad Zaman Urgench, it was finalized in 1665
33.
Khiva
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Khiva is a city of approximately 50,000 people located in Xorazm Region, Uzbekistan. According to archaeological data, the city was established in the beginning of the Christian era and it is the former capital of Khwarezmia and the Khanate of Khiva. Itchan Kala in Khiva was the first site in Uzbekistan to be inscribed in the World Heritage List, the origin of the name Khiva is unknown, but many contradictory stories have been told to explain it. A traditional story attributes the name to one of the sons of Noah, It is said that Shem, after the flood, having fallen asleep, he dreamt of 300 burning torches. On waking up, he was pleased with this omen, he founded the city with outlines in the form of a ship mapped out according to the placement of the torches, then Sim dug the Kheyvak well, the water from which had a surprising taste. It is possible to see well in Ichan-Kala even today. Another story relates that travellers passing through the city, upon drinking the excellent water, would exclaim Khey vakh. and hence the city known as Kheyvakh. A third proposal is that the name comes from the word Khwarezm, altered by borrowing into Turkic as Khivarezem, then shortened to Khiva. Subsequently the Iranian ruling class was replaced by Turks in the 10th century A. D, the city of Khiva was first recorded by Muslim travellers in the 10th century, although archaeologists assert that the city has existed since the 6th century. By the early 17th century, Khiva had become the capital of the Khanate of Khiva, ruled by a branch of the Astrakhans, in 1873, Russian General Konstantin von Kaufman launched an attack on the city, which fell on 28 May 1873. Although the Russian Empire now controlled the Khanate, it nominally allowed Khiva to remain as a quasi-independent protectorate, Khiva is split into two parts. The outer town, called Dichan Kala, was protected by a wall with 11 gates. The inner town, or Itchan Kala, is encircled by brick walls, present-day crenellated walls date back to the late 17th century and attain the height of 10 meters. The large blue tower in the city square was supposed to be a minaret, but the Khan died. The old town retains more than 50 historic monuments and 250 old houses, djuma Mosque, for instance, was established in the 10th century and rebuilt in 1788-89, although its celebrated hypostyle hall still retains 112 columns taken from ancient structures. Nishapur, Iran Al-Khwarizmi Trolleybuses in Urgench Campaigning on the Oxus, a Ride to Khiva, Frederick Burnaby. A Carpet Ride to Khiva, C. A. Alexander, journey to Khiva, Philip Glazebrook, A Writers Search for Central Asia. Khiva travel guide from Wikivoyage Images and travel impressiones along the Silk Road - Khiva
34.
River source
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The source or headwaters of a river or stream is the furthest place in that river or stream from its estuary or confluence with another river, as measured along the course of the river. As an example of the definition above, the USGS at times considers the Missouri River as a tributary of the Mississippi River. But it also follows the first definition above in using the combined Missouri - lower Mississippi length figure in lists of lengths of rivers around the world. This definition, from geographer Andrew Johnston of the Smithsonian Institution, is used by the National Geographic Society when pinpointing the source of rivers such as the Amazon or Nile. A definition given by the state of Montana agrees, stating that a source is never a confluence but is in a location that is the farthest, along water miles. Under this definition neither a lake nor a confluence of tributaries can be a river source. Likewise, the source of the Amazon River has been determined this way, when not listing river lengths, however, alternative definitions may be used. In the case of the Missouri River, Lewis and Clark would have had to travel to the east. to reach the source. Sometimes the source of the most remote tributary may be in an area that is more marsh-like, for example, the source of the River Tees is marshland. The furthest stream is often called the headstream. Headwaters are often small streams with cool waters because of shade and they may also be glacial headwaters, waters formed by the melting of glacial ice. Headwater areas are the areas of a watershed, as opposed to the outflow or discharge of a watershed. The river source is often but not always on or quite near the edge of the watershed, for example, the source of the Colorado River is at the Continental Divide separating the Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean watersheds of North America. A river is considered a geographic feature, with only one mouth. For an example, note how the Mississippi River and Missouri River sources are officially defined, U. S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System, Mississippi River, Length,2,340 miles, Source, 47°14′22″N 95°12′29″W U. S. For example, The River Thames rises in Gloucestershire, the White Nile rises in the Great Lakes region of central Africa. The word source, when applied to lakes rather than rivers or streams, refers to the lakes inflow
35.
Talas River
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The Talas River rises in the Talas Region of Kyrgyzstan and flows west into Kazakhstan. It is formed from the confluence of the Karakol and Uch-Koshoy and it runs through the city of Taraz in Zhambyl Province of Kazakhstan and vanishes before reaching Lake Aydyn. The Ili, Chu and Talas are three rivers that flow west and then north-west. The Ili River rises in Xinjiang, flows west to a point north of Lake Issyk Kul, the Chu River rises west of Lake Issyk Kul, flows out into the steppe and dries up before reaching the Syr Darya. The Talas River starts west and south of the Chu, flows west and north-west, during the Battle of Talas in 751, the Abbasid force defeated the Tang Chinese forces led by the General Gao Xianzhi over a dispute regarding a client kingdom in the Fergana Valley. The battle was won by the Abbasids after the Karluks defected, the Chinese monk Xuanzang arrived from the Chui river to Talas during one of his journeys
36.
Acre-foot
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As the name suggests, an acre-foot is defined as the volume of one acre of surface area to a depth of one foot. Since an acre is defined as a chain by a furlong, there are two definitions of an acre-foot, depending on whether the foot used is an international foot or a U. S. survey foot. As a rule of thumb in U. S. water management, one acre-foot is taken to be the water usage of a suburban family household. In some areas of the desert Southwest, where water conservation is followed and often enforced, one acre-foot/year is approximately 893 gallons per day. One acre-foot is approximately equivalent to 1.233 megalitres, Cubic metres per second Cubic feet per second List of unusual units of measurement United States customary units Units of measurement
37.
Cotton
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Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus Gossypium in the family of Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, under natural conditions, the cotton bolls will tend to increase the dispersal of the seeds. The plant is a native to tropical and subtropical regions around the world, including the Americas, Africa. The greatest diversity of wild species is found in Mexico, followed by Australia. Cotton was independently domesticated in the Old and New Worlds, the fiber is most often spun into yarn or thread and used to make a soft, breathable textile. Current estimates for world production are about 25 million tonnes or 110 million bales annually, China is the worlds largest producer of cotton, but most of this is used domestically. The United States has been the largest exporter for many years, in the United States, cotton is usually measured in bales, which measure approximately 0.48 cubic meters and weigh 226.8 kilograms. Cotton cultivation in the region is dated to the Indus Valley Civilization, the Indus cotton industry was well-developed and some methods used in cotton spinning and fabrication continued to be used until the industrialization of India. Between 2000 and 1000 BC cotton became widespread across much of India, for example, it has been found at the site of Hallus in Karnataka dating from around 1000 BC. Cotton fabrics discovered in a cave near Tehuacán, Mexico have been dated to around 5800 BC, the domestication of Gossypium hirsutum in Mexico is dated between 3400 and 2300 BC. Cotton was grown upriver, made into nets, and traded with fishing villages along the coast for supplies of fish. The Spanish who came to Mexico and Peru in the early 16th century found the people growing cotton and this may be a reference to tree cotton, Gossypium arboreum, which is a native of the Indian subcontinent. According to the Columbia Encyclopedia, Cotton has been spun, woven and it clothed the people of ancient India, Egypt, and China. Hundreds of years before the Christian era, cotton textiles were woven in India with matchless skill, in Iran, the history of cotton dates back to the Achaemenid era, however, there are few sources about the planting of cotton in pre-Islamic Iran. The planting of cotton was common in Merv, Ray and Pars of Iran, in Persian poets poems, especially Ferdowsis Shahname, there are references to cotton. Marco Polo refers to the products of Persia, including cotton. John Chardin, a French traveler of the 17th century who visited the Safavid Persia, during the Han dynasty, cotton was grown by Chinese peoples in the southern Chinese province of Yunnan. Mohamed Ali Pasha accepted the proposition and granted himself the monopoly on the sale and export of cotton in Egypt, and later dictated cotton should be grown in preference to other crops
38.
Kokand
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Kokand is a city in Fergana Region in eastern Uzbekistan, at the southwestern edge of the Fergana Valley. The population of Kokand on April 24,2014 was approximately 187,477, the city lies 228 km southeast of Tashkent,115 km west of Andijan, and 88 km west of Fergana. It is nicknamed City of Winds, or sometimes Town of the Boar, kokands name derives from the well-known tribal family group of Kokan who belong to the Kongrat tribe of Uzbeks. Kokand is at the crossroads of the two ancient trade routes into the Fergana Valley, one leading northwest over the mountains to Tashkent. As a result, Kokand is the transportation junction in the Fergana Valley. Kokand has existed since at least the 10th century, under the name of Khavakend, the Han Dynasty of China conquered the entire city in the 1st Century B. C. Later, the Arabs reconquered the region from Tang Empire, the Mongols destroyed Kokand in the 13th century. The present city began as a fort in 1732 on the site of another older fortress called Eski-Kurgan, in 1740, it became the capital of an Uzbek kingdom, the Khanate of Kokand, which reached as far as Kyzylorda to the west and Bishkek to the northeast. Kokand was also the religious center of the Fergana Valley. Russian imperial forces under Mikhail Skobelev captured the city in 1883 which then became part of Russian Turkistan and it was the capital of the short-lived anti-Bolshevik Provisional Government of Autonomous Turkistan. They sought co-operation from Ataman Dutov and Alash Orda, however, their emissary to the Amir of Bukhara achieved little. The Palace of Khudayar Khan was built between 1863 and 1874 by Muhammad Khudayar Khan, upon completion, it was one of the largest and most opulent palaces in Central Asia. Nineteen of its one hundred and thirteen rooms survive and now host a museum. Jummi Mosque, a Friday mosque built in 1800-1812, and reopened in 1989, amin Beg Madrassah, built in 1813. Dakhma-I-Shokhon, a necropolis of the Kokand Khans from the 1830s, khamza Museum, dedicated to Kokand’s Soviet hero Hamza Hakimzade Niyazi. Islam a plays large role in the life of Kokand. A number of madrasah can be found with the city and it is also home to a number of notable hanafi scholars, such as Abdulhafiz Al-Quqoniy and Yorqinjon Qori Al-Quqoniy. There are 2 institutes,9 colleges and lyceums,40 secondary schools,5 musical schools, a theater, there are 7 historical and house museums located in Kokand
39.
Canal
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Canals and navigations are human-made channels for water conveyance, or to service water transport vehicles. In the vernacular, both are referred to as canals, and in most cases, the works will have a series of dams. These areas are referred to as water levels, often just called levels. In contrast, a canal cuts across a drainage divide atop a ridge, many canals have been built at elevations towering over valleys and others water ways crossing far below. Cities need a lot of water and many canals with sources of water at a higher level can deliver water to a destination where there is a lack of water. The Roman Empires Aqueducts were such water supply canals, a navigation is a series of channels that run roughly parallel to the valley and stream bed of an unimproved river. A navigation always shares the drainage basin of the river, a vessel uses the calm parts of the river itself as well as improvements, traversing the same changes in height. A true canal is a channel that cuts across a drainage divide, most commercially important canals of the first half of the 19th century were a little of each, using rivers in long stretches, and divide crossing canals in others. This is true for many canals still in use, there are two broad types of canal, Waterways, canals and navigations used for carrying vessels transporting goods and people. These can be subdivided into two kinds, Those connecting existing lakes, rivers, other canals or seas and oceans and those connected in a city network, such as the Canal Grande and others of Venice Italy, the gracht of Amsterdam, and the waterways of Bangkok. Aqueducts, water canals that are used for the conveyance and delivery of potable water for human consumption, municipal uses, hydro power canals. Historically canals were of importance to commerce and the development, growth. In 1855 the Lehigh Canal carried over 1.2 million tons of burning anthracite coal, by the 1930s the company which built. By the early 1880s, canals which had little ability to compete with rail transport, were off the map. In the next couple of decades, coal was diminished as the heating fuel of choice by oil. Later, after World War I when motor-trucks came into their own, Canals are built in one of three ways, or a combination of the three, depending on available water and available path, Human made streams A canal can be created where no stream presently exists. Either the body of the canal is dug or the sides of the canal are created by making dykes or levees by piling dirt, stone, the water for the canal must be provided from an external source, like streams or reservoirs. Where the new waterway must change elevation engineering works like locks, lifts or elevators are constructed to raise, examples include canals that connect valleys over a higher body of land, like Canal du Midi, Canal de Briare and the Panama Canal
40.
Khanate of Kokand
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The Khanate of Kokand was a Central Asian state that existed from 1709–1876 within the territory of modern Kyrgyzstan, eastern Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, and southeastern Kazakhstan. The name of the city and the khanate may also be spelled as Khoqand in modern scholarly literature and he built a citadel as his capital in the small town of Kokand, thus starting the Khanate of Kokand. His son, Abd al-Karim, and grandson, Narbuta Beg, enlarged the citadel, Narbuta Beg’s son Alim was both ruthless and efficient. He hired an army of Tajik highlanders, and conquered the western half of the Fergana Valley, including Khujand. He was assassinated by his brother Omar in 1809, omar’s son, Mohammed Ali, ascended to the throne in 1821 at the age of 12. During his reign, the Khanate of Kokand reached its greatest territorial extent, the Kokand Khanate also housed the Khojas of Kashgar like Jahangir Khoja. Following this, Madali Khan, who had received Conolly in Kokand, the Emir, encouraged by the conspiratorial efforts of several influential figures in Kokand, invaded the khanate in 1842. Shortly thereafter he executed Madali Khan, his brother, and Omar Khans widow, Madali Khan’s cousin, Shir Ali, was installed as the Khan of Kokand in June 1842. Over the next two decades, the khanate was weakened by a civil war, which was further exacerbated by Bukharan and Russian incursions. Shir Ali’s son, Khudayar Khan, ruled from 1845 to 1858, in the meantime, Russia was continuing its advance, on June 28,1865 Tashkent was taken by the Russian troops of General Chernyayev, the loss of Khujand followed in 1867. In 1868, a treaty turned Kokand into a Russian vassal state, the now powerless Khudayar Khan spent his energies improving his lavish palace. Western visitors were impressed by the city of 80,000 people, insurrections against Russian rule and Khudayar’s oppressive taxes forced him into exile in 1875. He was succeeded by his son, Nasir ad-din Abdul Karim Khan, whose anti-Russian stance provoked the annexation of Kokand by Generals Konstantin von Kaufman, in March 1876, Tsar Alexander II stated that he had been forced to. Yield to the wishes of the Kokandi people to become Russian subjects, the Khanate of Kokand was declared abolished, and incorporated into the Fergana Province of Russian Turkestan. Nasir ad-din Abdul Karim Khan fled to India through the Pamirs and he died in 1893 in the city of Peshawar, Pakistan. His family is now inhabitant in Mir Tayyab Ghari, Peshawar, the Khans of Kokand had a connection with the Timurid Empire. From the time of the last Timurids to that of the first Khans of Kokand there was a period of more than two hundred years, the Khans genealogy was connected with Babur through a legendary figure, Altun Bishik. In the legend, a baby of Baburs family was left in a bishik when Babur fled prosecution, the child was named Altun Bishik, after its imperial cradle, and in the legend he lived from 918-952 AH / 1512-1545 AD
41.
Irrigation canal
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An acequia or séquia is a community-operated watercourse used in Spain and former Spanish colonies in the Americas for irrigation. Particularly in Spain, the Andes, northern Mexico, and the modern-day American Southwest and it can also refer to the long central pool in a Moorish garden, such as the Generalife in the Alhambra in Southern Iberia. The Spanish word acequia comes from Classical Arabic as-sāqiya, which has the double entendre of the water conduit or one that bears water, the Arabs brought the technology to Iberia during their occupation of the Iberian peninsula. Acequias are gravity chutes, similar in concept to flumes, some acequias are conveyed through pipes or aqueducts, of modern fabrication or decades or centuries old. The majority, however, are open ditches with dirt banks. In many communities, the ditchbanks are important routes for non-motorized travel, among the most significant findings of this study was that the acequia farms provide vital ecosystem and economic base services to the regions in which they are located. This pioneering research on acequia ecosystem services, led by environmental anthropologist Devon G. Peña, has recently been confirmed in other studies. In New Mexico, by statute, acequias as registered bodies must have three commissioners and a mayordomo. Irrigation and conservation districts typically have their own version of mayordomos, for example, the Doctrine of Prior Appropriation is based on the principle of first in use, first in right, while acequia norms incorporate not just priority but principles of equity and fairness. The Prior regime is based on a regime in which the members of a mutual ditch company will vote based on their proportional ownership of shares so that larger farmers have more votes. In contrast, the system follows a one farmer, one vote system that has led researchers to consider this a form of water democracy. Levada Leat Müang Fai irrigation system Qanat Fernald, A. G. T. T. Baker, and S. J. Guldan, Hydrological, Riparian, river hydrograph retransmission functions of irrigated valley surface water–groundwater interactions. Fernald, A. S. Guldan, K. Boykin, A. Cibils, M. Gonzales, ochoa, M. Ortiz, J. Rivera, S. Rodriguez, and C. Linked hydrologic and social systems that support resilience of traditional irrigation communities, raheem, N. S. Archambault, E. Arellano, M. Gonzales, D. Kopp, J. Rivera, S. Guldan, K. Boykin, C. Oldham, A. Valdez, S. Colt, E. Lamadrid, J. Wang, J. Price, J. Goldstein, P. Arnold, S. Martin, a framework for assessing ecosystem services in acequia irrigation communities of the Upper Río Grande watershed. Irrigation and Society in Medieval Valencia, cambridge, Mass, Harvard University Press,1970. Spanish version, Regadío y sociedad en la Valencia medieval, the Old World Background of the Irrigation System of San Antonio, Texas. El Paso, Texas, Western Press,1972, Spanish version, in Los cuadernos de Cauce 2000, No.15, also in Instituto de la Ingeniería de España, Obras hidráulicas prehispánicas y coloniales en América, I, pp. 225–264
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Rice
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Rice is the seed of the grass species Oryza sativa or Oryza glaberrima. As a cereal grain, it is the most widely consumed staple food for a part of the worlds human population. It is the agricultural commodity with the third-highest worldwide production, after sugarcane and maize, wild rice, from which the crop was developed, may have its native range in Australia. Chinese legends attribute the domestication of rice to Shennong, the emperor of China. Genetic evidence has shown that rice originates from a single domestication 8, previously, archaeological evidence had suggested that rice was domesticated in the Yangtze River valley region in China. From East Asia, rice was spread to Southeast and South Asia, Rice was introduced to Europe through Western Asia, and to the Americas through European colonization. There are many varieties of rice and culinary preferences tend to vary regionally, in some areas such as the Far East or Spain, there is a preference for softer and stickier varieties. Rice, a monocot, is grown as an annual plant, although in tropical areas it can survive as a perennial. The rice plant can grow to 1–1.8 m tall, occasionally more depending on the variety and it has long, slender leaves 50–100 cm long and 2–2.5 cm broad. The small wind-pollinated flowers are produced in a branched arching to pendulous inflorescence 30–50 cm long, the edible seed is a grain 5–12 mm long and 2–3 mm thick. Rice cultivation is well-suited to countries and regions with low costs and high rainfall, as it is labor-intensive to cultivate. However, rice can be grown practically anywhere, even on a hill or mountain area with the use of water-controlling terrace systems. Although its parent species are native to Asia and certain parts of Africa, centuries of trade, the traditional method for cultivating rice is flooding the fields while, or after, setting the young seedlings. The name wild rice is used for species of the genera Zizania and Porteresia. The Greek word is the source of all European words, the origin of the Greek word is unclear. It is sometimes held to be from the Tamil word அரிசி, however, Krishnamurti disagrees with the notion that Old Tamil arici is the source of the Greek term, and proposes that it was borrowed from descendants of Proto-Dravidian *wariñci instead. The varieties of rice are typically classified as long-, medium-, the grains of long-grain rice tend to remain intact after cooking, medium-grain rice becomes more sticky. Medium-grain rice is used for dishes, for risotto in Italy
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Environmental degradation
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It is defined as any change or disturbance to the environment perceived to be deleterious or undesirable. Environmental degradation is one of the ten threats officially cautioned by the High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges, environmental degradation is of many types. When natural habitats are destroyed or natural resources are depleted, the environment is degraded, efforts to counteract this problem include environmental protection and environmental resources management. One major component of environmental degradation is the depletion of the resource of water on Earth. Approximately only 2. 5% of all of the water on Earth is fresh water, 69% of the fresh water is frozen in ice caps located on Antarctica and Greenland, so only 30% of the 2. 5% of fresh water is available for consumption. Fresh water is an important resource, since life on Earth is ultimately dependent on it. Water scarcity is a problem due to many foreseen issues in the future, including population growth, increased urbanization, higher standards of living. Climate change affects the Earths water supply in a number of ways. Transpiration from plants can be affected by a rise in atmospheric CO2, which can decrease their use of water, warmer winter temperatures cause a decrease in snowpack, which can result in diminished water resources during summer. Sea-level rise may also consequently be caused by a depletion of groundwater, a rise in air temperature results in a rise in water temperature, which is also very significant in water degradation, as the water would become more susceptible to bacterial growth. It is generally expected that, on average, global precipitation will increase, with some areas receiving increases, naturally, the distribution of precipitation across the planet is very uneven, causing constant variations in water availability in respective locations. Changes in precipitation affect the timing and magnitude of floods and droughts, shift runoff processes, vegetation patterns and growth rates will be directly affected by shifts in precipitation amount and distribution, which will in turn affect agriculture as well as natural ecosystems. Groundwater reserves will be depleted, and the water has a greater chance of being of poor quality from saline or contaminants on the land surface. The human population on Earth is expanding rapidly which goes hand in hand with the degradation of the environment at large measures, humanitys appetite for needs is disarranging the environments natural equilibrium. Production industries are venting smoke and discharging chemicals that are polluting water resources, the smoke that is emitted into the atmosphere holds detrimental gases such as carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide. The high levels of pollution in the atmosphere form layers that are absorbed into the atmosphere. Organic compounds such as chlorofluorocarbons have generated an unwanted opening in the ozone layer, the available fresh water being affected by the climate is also being stretched across an ever-increasing global population. Even though some areas may see an increase in supply from an uneven distribution of precipitation increase
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Turkmenistan
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Turkmenistan has been at the crossroads of civilizations for centuries. In medieval times, Merv was one of the cities of the Islamic world and an important stop on the Silk Road. Annexed by the Russian Empire in 1881, Turkmenistan later figured prominently in the movement in Central Asia. In 1924, Turkmenistan became a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic, Turkmenistan possesses the worlds fourth largest reserves of natural gas resources. Most of the country is covered by the Karakum Desert, since 1993, citizens have received government-provided electricity, water and natural gas free of charge. Turkmenistan was ruled by President for Life Saparmurat Niyazov until his death in 2006, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow was elected president in 2007. According to Human Rights Watch, Turkmenistan remains one of the world’s most repressive countries, after suspending the death penalty, the use of capital punishment was formally abolished in the 2008 constitution. Historically inhabited by the Indo-Iranians, the history of Turkmenistan begins with its annexation by the Achaemenid Empire of Ancient Iran. In the 8th century AD, Turkic-speaking Oghuz tribes moved from Mongolia into present-day Central Asia, part of a powerful confederation of tribes, these Oghuz formed the ethnic basis of the modern Turkmen population. In the 10th century, the name Turkmen was first applied to Oghuz groups that accepted Islam, There they were under the dominion of the Seljuk Empire, which was composed of Oghuz groups living in present-day Iran and Turkmenistan. Turkmen soldiers in the service of the played a important role in the spreading of Turkic culture when they migrated westward into present-day Azerbaijan. In the 12th century, Turkmen and other tribes overthrew the Seljuk Empire, in the next century, the Mongols took over the more northern lands where the Turkmens had settled, scattering the Turkmens southward and contributing to the formation of new tribal groups. The sixteenth and eighteenth centuries saw a series of splits and confederations among the nomadic Turkmen tribes, by the 16th century, most of those tribes were under the nominal control of two sedentary Uzbek khanates, Khiva and Bukhoro. Turkmen soldiers were an important element of the Uzbek militaries of this period, in the 19th century, raids and rebellions by the Yomud Turkmen group resulted in that groups dispersal by the Uzbek rulers. According to Paul R. Spickard, Prior to the Russian conquest, Russian forces began occupying Turkmen territory late in the 19th century. From their Caspian Sea base at Krasnovodsk, the Russians eventually overcame the Uzbek khanates, in 1916 the Russian Empires participation in World War I resonated in Turkmenistan, as an anticonscription revolt swept most of Russian Central Asia. In 1924 the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic was formed from the tsarist province of Transcaspia, by the late 1930s, Soviet reorganization of agriculture had destroyed what remained of the nomadic lifestyle in Turkmenistan, and Moscow controlled political life. The Ashgabat earthquake of 1948 killed over 110,000 people, during the next half-century, Turkmenistan played its designated economic role within the Soviet Union and remained outside the course of major world events
