Amu Darya

views updated May 11 2018

AMU DARYA

Afghan river.

The Amu Darya, also known in the past as the Oxus River, forms the principal boundary between Afghanistan and the Tajik and Uzbek republics, a distance of about 680 miles (1,094 km). The Amu Darya begins in the Pamir mountains, runs a total distance of about 1,500 miles (2,414 km), and eventually empties into the Aral Sea.


Bibliography


Dupree, Louis. Afghanistan. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.

Grant Farr

Amu Darya

views updated May 14 2018

Amu Darya a river of central Asia, rising in the Pamirs and flowing into the Aral Sea, which in classical times was known as the Oxus.