Bartang


Bartang

 

a river in the Pamir, in Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (rises in Afghanistan); right tributary of the Piandzh (headwaters of the Amu Darya). The upper reaches of the Bartang are called the Oxus; the middle, the Murghab; and slightly below Sarez Lake the river becomes known as the Bartang. The entire system of the Bartang-Murghab-Oxus is 528 km long. (The Bartang proper is 133 km long.) The basin area is 24,700 sq km. The Bartang crosses the Pamir from east to west in a deep-cut valley. It is fed primarily by snow and glaciers. At the estuary the average year-round discharge is 128 cu m per sec. The Shudzhan Hydroelectric Power Plant is located on the Bartang.