Zarafshan Valley
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| Zarafshan Valley | |
|---|---|
| Zeravshan Valley | |
| ActiveRecorded as grown here since 2000 | |
| Location | |
| Coordinates | 39.71, 66.79 |
| Country | Uzbekistan,Tajikistan |
| Provinces/States | Samarkand Region,Bukhara Region,Navoiy Region,Sughd Region |
| Area | 38,400 km² |
| Primary Rivers | Zarafshan |
| Primary Mountains | Turkestan Range,Zarafshan Range |
| Growing history | |
| Earlier names | Zeravshan |
| Dated news reports | 2021–2026 |
| Conservation | |
| Populations | none documented yet |
Zarafshan Valley is a cannabis growing region in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, along the Zarafshan, the river that waters the oases of Samarkand and Bukhara. It holds two growing areas, Samarkand and Bukhara. The Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopaedic Dictionary listed hemp among the crops of the irrigated land of the Bukhara khanate in 1891[1] and of Samarkand oblast in 1900.[2] In 2021 the police reported a field of cannabis sown by a farmer in Jambay district of Samarkand Region, and in 2026 plants grown by households in Samarkand and Bukhara districts.[3][4]
Geography
The Brockhaus and Efron dictionary of 1894 called the land watered by the Zarafshan the most populous and richest oasis in Central Asia, one half of it in the Samarkand and Kattakurgan districts of Samarkand oblast and the other half in Bukhara. It counted 83 main canals drawn from the river in the oblast and 43 in the khanate, and put the river's length at about 600 versts, 380 of them in the oblast.[5]
The irrigated valley begins a little east of Penjikent, where the river comes out of the mountains. In the mountains, where its upper course is called the Matcha, the river runs west through a deep, narrow gorge from a glacier on the mountain knot where the Turkestan and Hissar ranges join the Alai, and takes in the Fan-darya from the left. Once out of the mountains it feeds canal after canal. Eight versts from Samarkand it splits into the Ak-darya and the Kara-darya, which rejoin near Khatyrchi and enclose the island of Miankal; west of Kermine it turns south-west past Bukhara, and it ends in the sands about 30 versts short of the Amu Darya.[5]
The region takes in the whole valley: the mountain course in Tajikistan's Sughd Region, Samarkand Region, the valley districts of Navoiy Region, and the Bukhara oasis in Bukhara Region.
History
In 1868 Russian troops occupied the eastern part of the Bukhara khanate, and the towns of Samarkand, Urgut and Kattakurgan, among others, became the Zeravshan district. Penjikent was added at the end of 1868, and all the principalities of the upper Zeravshan in 1870 and 1871. On 1 January 1887 the district became part of the new Samarkand oblast.[6] The khanate, now under Russian protection, kept the lower valley; its border with Russian territory crossed the valley west of Kattakurgan.[1]
Alexander Burnes, who was in Bukhara in 1832, wrote that hemp was reared in the kingdom but that its people did not know its use in manufactures: they pressed oil from the seeds, made the drug bang from the plant and fed the stalks to cattle.[7] After the conquest, the Brockhaus and Efron dictionary listed hemp on both sides of the new border: among the crops of the irrigated fields of the Bukhara khanate, with wheat, rice, cotton, tobacco and poppy,[1] and among more than twenty crops of the irrigated land of Samarkand oblast, whose four districts were then Samarkand, Kattakurgan, Jizzakh and Khujand.[2] Neither entry says what the hemp was grown for.
Growing Areas
Accessions
No accessions documented yet.
Recent news
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Бухара, ханство". Энциклопедический словарь Брокгауза и Ефрона (in русский). Vol. V. St Petersburg: Brockhaus–Efron. 1891. pp. 97–108 – via Wikisource.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Самаркандская область". Энциклопедический словарь Брокгауза и Ефрона (in русский). Vol. XXVIIIa. St Petersburg: Brockhaus–Efron. 1900. pp. 178–181 – via Wikisource.
- ↑ Tuxsinov, D. (9 August 2021). "Samarkand police detain a farmer growing hemp in his house". Kun.uz. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ "Control through helicopters: 70 kg of narcotic plants destroyed". Zamon.uz. 16 September 2026. Retrieved 13 October 2026.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Зеравшан". Энциклопедический словарь Брокгауза и Ефрона (in русский). Vol. XIIa. St Petersburg: Brockhaus–Efron. 1894. pp. 554–556 – via Wikisource.
- ↑ "Зеравшанский округ". Энциклопедический словарь Брокгауза и Ефрона (in русский). Vol. XIIa. St Petersburg: Brockhaus–Efron. 1894. p. 553 – via Wikisource.
- ↑ Burnes, A. (1834). Travels into Bokhara. Vol. 2. London: John Murray. pp. 166–167 – via Internet Archive.