{"book":"adl0980","page":60,"text":"The Amu (Oxus)\nThis forms the boundary between\nAfghanistan and the Soviet Republic for\na distance of about 700 miles. Known as\nAab-i-Wakhan at its source in Little\nPamir, and later as Aab-i-Panja, it is\ngradually augmented by the several\ntributaries which join it, until it eventually\nbecomes the full-spated Amu. Before\nreaching Istkashim, in a virtually east-\nwest direction, it crosses deep gorges and\nchasms. Here it turns directly north on\nits journey to Wishkari, and drops a height\nof 3,300ft. From Wishkari it courses\nsouthwards again to where the Kokcha\njoins it, and then runs west into desert-\nland, until, at Khamiab, it leaves Afghan\nterritory altogether to flow up to the Aral\nSea.\n\nThe Murghab\nThis river has its sources in two lakes\nlying alongside Latitude 35. From their\nheight of 8,200ft. the waters of these two\nlakes flow west to converge at Charsada,\nand form the Murghab.\nFlowing initially through the Chagh-\ncharan and Feroz Koh areas, the Murghab\nthen descends to the plain, and changes\ncourse up to Bala Murgrah.\nIts fertile shores are used extensively\nfor agriculture; and at Maruchak, some\nthirty miles from Bala Murghab, the river\nis cut by the boundary between Afghan-\nistan and Russian Turkmenistan.\n\nThe Hari Rud\nThis, too, rises from two lakes, the\nSangalab and the Sarjangal, both occurring\n13,100ft. above sea level in the Koh-i-Baba\nrange. It travels between the Western\nSia Koh and the Koh-i-Saffid to the\nverdant plain of Herat, slowing and\nwidening as it goes. Before arriving at\nKoshan, near the Afghan-Persian border,\nthe river drops more than 10,600ft., then\nswings north-east to Islan Qala, and north\nto Turkmenistan. Between Koshan and\nTuman Akha the Hari Rud flows inside\nAfghan territory, but hereon it marks\nthe boundary between Afghanistan and\n\nIran, until at Zulfiqar it flows out into the\nTurkmen deserts.\n\nThe Kabul\nThis river, from which the capital takes\nits name, rises at Unai, 11,500ft. above sea\nlevel, and flows down into the Kabul\nValley. Before reaching the capital it is\njoined by a number of tributaries, and\nlater, on its way to Jalalabad, by the\nLogar and Panjsher.\nAt Jalalabad it is met by the most\nimportant of its tributaries, the Kunar;\nand at Attock, near Peshawar, it finally\nflows into the mighty Sind, having run\nsome 286 miles. In the summer months\nit is used to irrigate the majority of the\nzones through which it passes.\n\nThe Helmand\nOf all the rivers of Afghanistan the\nHelmand is the longest, 620 miles. Rising\nfrom the Hazarajat mountains near the\nsource of the Kabul, at a height of\n12,500ft., it flows south-westwards through\nvery mountainous country to Girishk. It\nis just south of here that its main tribu-\ntary, the Arghandab, joins it.\nThe Arghandab itself is a river of\nconsiderable note, with three tributaries,\nand in fact it only joins the Helmand in\nwinter time, for during the hotter seasons\nits waters are harnessed for irrigation\npurposes.\nHereonafter the Helmand runs through\nbarren land, terminating in the three great\nHamun lakes which lie on the Afghan-\nIranian border.\nThe flow of the Helmand is very\nfluctuating, ranging between 2,000 and\n60,000 cubic feet per second, accounting\nfor the delta and lakes at its mouth, and\nthe frequent changes in the boundary\nbetween Afghanistan and Iran.\nRecently however, the entire Helmand\nValley has come within a vast irrigation\nscheme. Under the Five-Year Plan its\nwaters are being harnessed to supply the\nformerly barren area with the water so\ndesperately needed; and the flow will be\ncontrolled to guard against floods,\nespecially in the area near Chakhansur.\n\n57","chars":3603,"image":"https://storage.googleapis.com/adl-page-images/adl0980/00060.jpg","first_page":1,"last_page":93,"title":"Afghan progress in the fourth year plan","permalink":"https://afghanpress.org/book/adl0980/60","canvas":"https://afghanpress.org/iiif/adl0980/canvas/60","source":"https://afghanistandl.nyu.edu/books/adl0980/","source_pdf":"https://afghanistandl.nyu.edu/pdf/adl0980_download.pdf","rights":{"image":{"statement":"Public domain. NYU states: \"All works presented on this website are, unless otherwise indicated, in the public domain. The images available on this website may be freely reproduced, distributed and transmitted by anyone for any purpose, commercial or non-commercial.\"","uri":"http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/","holder":"New York University Libraries","source":"https://afghanistandl.nyu.edu/about.html","delivery":"Images are served from a copy mirrored by this project, not from NYU's servers, under the reproduction terms above.","endorsement":"This is an independent project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or reviewed by New York University."},"text":{"statement":"Machine-generated transcription, dedicated to the public domain under CC0 1.0. No warranty of accuracy: see the provenance block on every page.","uri":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/","holder":"Steps Ventures"}},"provenance":{"text_produced_by":"gemini-3.1-pro-preview","thinking_level":"low","read_completed":"2026-08-09","per_page_confidence":null,"per_page_confidence_note":"Not recorded during the corpus run. No calibrated per-page score exists, and none is estimated here.","human_reviewed":false,"accuracy_context":"Roughly two thirds of characters agree with a modern printed edition of the same text. Much of the disagreement is editorial, not misreading. Treat the transcription as a finding aid and read the page image before quoting.","primary_source":"The page image. The text is an index into it."}}