Syr Darya
Aral Sea ( before 1985 ) with Amu Darya and Syr Darya
Syr Darya in Khujand
The 2212 km long Syr Darya (also: Syrdarya / Syr -Darya / Syr, in ancient times: Jaxartes ) is a river in Central Asia, which flows into the North Aral Sea.
Name
The ancient name of the river Jaxartes comes from the Greek word Ιαξάρτης ( Jaxartes ). This in turn was a derivation from the Old Turkic name Yakhshe Arta, which roughly translates " The beautiful abundance " means. In medieval Islamic writings of the river under the Arabic name Sayhoun ( سيحون ) was known, which is the name of one of the four rivers of paradise. The twin flow of the Syr Darya, Amu Darya was the then called Dschayhoun ( جيحون ). Of these two Arabic names, the Turkish names of the rivers and Seyhun Ceyhun derived. The current name of the river is a relatively new name. In the countries bordering the river is called as follows: Uzbek Sirdaryo; Kazakh Сырдарья ( Sirdarya ); Russian Сырдарья ( Sirdarja ); Tajik Сирдарё ( Sirdars ).
River
The river is formed by the confluence of the Naryn and Karadarja, two coming from Kyrgyzstan headwaters. This " river wedding " takes place in Uzbekistan in the Ferghana Valley between the Gebirgmassiven Tianshan and Alai. From there, the Syr Darya flows in a westerly direction through the valley and passes it to the input of Kairakkum dam the border with Tajikistan. Slightly below the dam reaches its water again to Uzbekistan, reached here the lowlands of Turan and turns north to later cross the border to Kazakhstan. The Syr Darya flows through Kazakhstan to the northwest, where it forms the northern edge of the Kysylkumwüste. In winter there is on the lower reaches of the Syr Darya River floods, so a portion of the runoff into the lake Aydar colleagues in Uzbekistan must be derived.
The significantly reduced by strong water abstraction for irrigation river eventually empties into the Northern Aral Sea. Together with the Naryn ( his right source river ) it is 3019 km long. Then, the catchment area is 782,669 km ², including all tributaries. Previously formed the Syr Darya in the estuary a inland delta.
Environmental disaster
An extensive system of irrigation canals, partly invested in the 18th century by the khans of Kokand, cut off the flow of its waters. The enormous expansion of the canal system during the Soviet era, when cotton production was stepped up in Central Asia and for several reservoirs had to be applied has brought the region an environmental disaster. Apart from precipitation years, the river dries nowadays often long before reaching the Aral Sea completely, the lake itself is only a small residual divided by the drying up into two parts. Between 1980 and 1988, the Syr Darya dried up as a tributary of the Aral Sea completely even in its lower reaches. Since millions of people now settle in this cotton region, and since the governments of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan to disagree, it is highly unclear whether and how you can get this problem under control.
Reservoirs
The Syr Darya is repeatedly dammed for irrigation and energy development; the largest reservoir is called Kairakkum Reservoir ( also Kajrakkum or Kayrakum called ), which has an area of 520 km ² and 4.16 billion cubic meters of storage space with full back.