The Bartang (Russian and Tajik: Бартанг, Persian: برتنگ) is a river of Central Asia, and is a tributary to the Panj which itself is a tributary to the Amu Darya. In its middle and upper reaches, it is respectively known as the Murghab and Aksu; it flows through the Wakhan in Afghanistan, then through the Rushon District of the Gorno-Badakhshan autonomous region, Tajikistan. The river is 528 kilometres (328 mi) long (133 km excluding Aksu and Murghab) and has a basin area of 24,700 square kilometres (9,500 sq mi).
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Bartang River in the context of Panj River
The Panj, traditionally known as the Ochus River, is a river in Afghanistan and Tajikistan and a tributary of the Amu Darya. The river is 921 kilometres (572 mi) long and has a basin area of 114,000 square kilometres (44,000 sq mi). It forms a considerable part of the Afghanistan–Tajikistan border.
The river is formed by the confluence of the Pamir River and the Wakhan River near the village of Qalʿa-ye Panja (Qalʽeh-ye Panjeh). From there, it flows westwards, marking part of the border of Afghanistan and Tajikistan. After passing the city of Khorugh, capital of the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region of Tajikistan it receives water from one of its main tributaries, the Bartang River. It then turns towards the southwest, before joining the river Vakhsh and forming the greatest river of Central Asia, the Amu Darya. The Panj played an important role during Soviet times, and was a strategic river during the Soviet military operations in Afghanistan in the 1980s.
Bartang River in the context of Little Pamir
The Little Pamir (Wakhi: Wuch Pamir; Kyrgyz: Kichik Pamir; Persian: پامیر خرد, romanized: Pāmīr-e Khord) is a broad U-shaped grassy valley or pamir in the eastern part of the Wakhan in north-eastern Afghanistan. The valley is 100 km long and 10 km wide, and is bounded to the north by the Nicholas Range, a subrange of the Pamir Mountains.
Chaqmaqtin Lake (17 km by 3 km) lies towards the western end of the valley while the Tegerman Su valley lies at its easternmost end. The Aksu or Murghab River flows east from the lake through the Little Pamir to enter Tajikistan at the eastern end of the valley. The Bozai Darya (also known as the Little Pamir River) rises a short distance west of the lake, and flows 15 km west to join the Wakhjir River and form the Wakhan River near the settlement of Bozai Gumbaz.