| Zarafshon | |
| Map: | Amudaryamap.jpg |
| Pushpin Map: | Uzbekistan |
| Pushpin Map Size: | 200px |
| Pushpin Map Caption: | Mouth |
| Source1: | Zeravshan Glacier |
| Source1 Coordinates: | 39.5°N 105°W |
| Mouth: | Qorakoʻl oasis |
| Mouth Coordinates: | 39.5477°N 63.869°W |
| Subdivision Type1: | Country |
| Subdivision Name1: | Tajikistan, Uzbekistan |
| Length: | 877km (545miles) |
| Basin Size: | 17700km2 |
| Tributaries Left: | Fan Darya, Kshtut, Magiyan |
| City: | Panjakent, Samarkand, Bukhara |
The Zarafshon[1] (Uzbek & Tajik: Зарафшон, Romanized: Zarafshon) is a river in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan in Central Asia. Its name, "spreader of gold" in Persian, refers to the presence of gold-bearing sands in the upper reaches of the river. To the ancient Greeks it was known as the Polytimetus.[2] It was also formerly known as Sughd River. The river is 877km (545miles) long and has a basin area of 17700km2.[3]
It rises at the Zeravshan Glacier, close to where the Turkestan Range and the Zeravshan Range of the Pamir-Alay mountains meet, in Tajikistan. In its upper course, upstream from its confluence with the Fan Darya, it is also called Matcha.[4] It flows due west for some 300km (200miles), passing Panjakent before entering Uzbekistan at 39.5333°N 94°W, where it turns west-to-north-west, flowing past the legendary city of Samarkand, where it feeds the Dargom Canal, which is entirely dependent on the oasis thus created, until it bends left again to the west north of Navoiy and further to the south-west, passing Bukhara before it is lost in the desert beyond the city of Qorakoʻl (Karakul), not quite reaching the Amu Darya, of which it was formerly a tributary.