Tedzhen River
Rising in Afghanistan at an elevation of 3,000 meters, the Tedzhen (Tejen) is one of the main suppliers of water to northern Afghanistan, northeast Iran, and southern Turkmenistan. Within Afghanistan and Iran the river is known as the Hari Rud, taking the name Tedzhen only within Turkmenistan, where it waters the city and oasis of the same name.
The river is 1,150 kilometers in length and drains an area of 70,600 square kilometers. Fed by meltwater, the river's main flow is between the months of March and May, with a maximum flow of 990 cubic meters per second. The mean flow is just 30 cubic meters per second, and between the months of August and November the riverbed is usually dry. The river does not freeze.
In its upper reaches the river is no more than a mountain stream, but further downstream it provides the main source of water to the important Herat oasis in Afghanistan, where large volumes of water are diverted for irrigated agriculture. Below Herat, the Tedzhen forms the border between Afghanistan and Iran before becoming the boundary between Iran and Turkmenistan. Within Turkmenistan it flows via two reservoirs, the Tedzhen (142 million cubic meters) and the Second Tedzhen (180 million cubic meters) into a broad valley where it splits into several channels before drying in the Kara Kum Desert. The entirety of the river's flow is here used for irrigation and the lower course has to be fed via the Kara Kum Canal.
Further Reading
Prokhorov, A. M., ed. (1973–1983) Great Soviet Encyclopedia. Translation of Bolˊshaia sovetskaia entsiklopediia. New York: Macmillan.
Murzaev, E. (1957) Srednyaya Aziya: Fiziko-geograficheskiy ocherk. Moscow: Gosuderstvennoe Izdatel'stvo Geograsficheskoi Literatury.
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