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The Zeravshan or Zarafshan river (from the Persian word زر افشان, meaning "the sprayer of Gold"), whilst smaller and less well-known than the two great rivers of Central Asia, the Amu Darya (or Oxus) and the Syr Darya (or Jaxartes), is if anything more valuable as a source of irrigation in the region. Its name signifies 'Spreader of Gold' in Persian, and 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. The Zeravshan range or Zeravshan mountains rise to the south of the river. They reach up to 5,630 metres high. It rises at on the fringes of the Pamirs in Tajikistan, flowing due west for soe 300 km, passing Penjikent before entering Uzbekistan at , where it turns west-to-north-west, flowing past the legendary city of Samarkand, which is entirely dependent on the oasis thus created, until it bends left again to the west north of Navoi and further to the south-west, passing Bukhara before it loses itself in the desert past Karakul, not quite reachig the Oxus of which it was formerly a tributary.
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