﻿»1 



KHAB3. 



Itood itoD* bridge of 15 arolia*, which ooniioeU the countio* of 

 S onw w* lid Ok in oi irt i ir. 



KHAB8. [SnmB; MiDRBRaMiAH.] 



KHABUR, KIVER. [Baqbdad, Puhalio of.] 



KHALITNITEH, LAKE. [BAaaOAD, Paahalio of.] 



KIIANDKISH. [('ANDEIU.J 



KUANDIA. [Oaxdia.] 



KHAKIKA. [Cabiou] 



KHEKSON. TCmRaos.] 



KHIU& [Caiba.] 



KHIVA, or KUYVA, a country in Aiin, forming « part of that 

 naturml divition which goes b* the name of Turan, or Lower Turkiatan, 

 ii atoated on the east of the Oupian Sea, between SO* and 45° N. lat., 

 64* and 63* B. long. On the east the boundary between Khyra and 

 Bokhara traTers«a the river Oxua a few milee north-west of the 

 Bokharian fortreaa of Charchiii, and runs northward near the town of 

 KarakoL On the north of Khyra is the deaert of Kisil Koum, the 

 8ea of Aral, and the table-land of Usturt The Caspian oonstitutea 

 its western boundary. On the south of Khyva is the desert called 

 Deaht Cowas, and tlirough it lies the boundary-line separating Kbyva 

 from Pcxaia and Merre. The authority of tbe khan of Khyva may 

 •ztend over a oountry containing about 150,000 square miles. 



Smfac* and SoU. — The oountry between the Caspian Sea and the 

 Sea of Aral is o&lled the Turkman Isthmus. Between 44° and 45° 

 N. laL, an extensire promontory projects into the Caspian. It is 

 called Manghislak, and consists of a mountuin-uaas divided into three 

 chains^ which, according to an estimate, rise to 1500 or 2000 feetabove 

 the level of the Caspian. From thia place a mountainous country 

 extends in a north-eastern direction towards tbe northern shores of the 

 Sea of Aral, and in a south-eastern direction to the table-land of Usturt, 

 The whole of tbe Turkman Isthmus, as well as the country east of the 

 Aral Sea, is described in the articles Caspian Ska and Aral, Sea or. 



Above 30 mileeBouthofKooU Delia, on the eastooast of the Caspian, 

 is an isolated mountain range running east and west. It extends along 

 the northern shores of the Qulf of Ralkhan, and is also called Balkban. 

 Near the Caspian Sea the hills are of moderate elevation, but north- 

 east of the innermost recess of the bay are some summits called 

 Great B«lt>i«n which appear to attain an elevation of at least 2000 

 feet above the level of the sea. This chain does not advance much 

 fiurther east, but turns southward, and incloses the bay also on the 

 aaat, where it is known by the name of Little Balkhan. At its 

 ■ontiiem extremity, south of 40* N. lat., a depression is said to 

 exist, by which it is supposed that the Oxus may luive discharged 

 its waters into the Caspian. The depression by which an arm of the 

 Oxus is said in former times to have connected the Caspian with the Aral 

 is generally placed farther north, namely, betwetn the head of Kooli 

 Deria Bay and the Oxus, near Kanai-Ourghenj, where a low broad flat 

 extends, covered with sand, as if it had ouce been covered by the sea. 

 From the southern base of the Balkhan to the river Atreck, on the 

 boundary of Persia, an uninterrupted ridge of sand-hills skirts the 

 Caspian, about 10 miles &om its shores. 



The Turkman Isthmus, with the exception of the mountains and 

 hills already noticed, is, generally speaking, a plateau or plain, whose 

 surface is only here and there interrupted by flat depressions, in which 

 lakes are generally found ; of these however the greater part is dried 

 up during the summer. The northern part of it cannot properly be 

 called a desert. There certainly are many sandy tracts, but they are 

 not extensive, and the remainder consists of a loamy haird soil, impreg- 

 nated with salt« which in spring and the beginning of summer is 

 partly covered with grass ; but later in the season is without vege- 

 tation. In the hot season the Truohmenes, or Turkomans, feed their 

 herds of camels and horses on tbe leaves of the bushes snd trees that 

 grow in the depressions, or bring them to the boiudary of Persia, or 

 of the cultivated part of Khyva. The southern part however is 

 almost entirely covered with sand. 



Khyva proper, or the cultivated portion of the Khanat, consists of 

 • comparatively narrow tract contiguous to the course of the river 

 Oxus, and extending north and south, a distance of about 1 SO miles. 

 The area of this tract falls short of 4000 square miles. It is thickly 

 inhabited, and produces almoet every kind of grain in abundance. 

 Bst it* fotiUty ■ properly not derived from tbe hoiI, which, where it 

 fai beyond the raaon of irrigation, consists of a hard loam, impregnated 

 with salt, and nearly without vegetation. But the whole region is 

 tiavetsed by so many canals that it resemblee a net The water is 

 drawn from the Oxus, and runs with a perceptible current to the 

 wast and north-west, where the canals terminate in a series of lakes at 

 tbo foot of sandhills which divide Khyva proper from the desert. 

 Tbis dss eri ption however applies only to the southern part of the 



I ; ths delta of the Oxus, or that portion of the country which 

 islnclassd by its arms, contains very little land fit for agricultural 

 porpossa. It is annually inuadated by the river, and mostly over- 

 grown with reeds and rashes, but there are considerable tracts which 

 serve ss pastar»Kround for cattle, which is of great importance, as 

 the sontliam country hss no meadow-land or pastures. Where the 

 delta bordsis on Lake Aral it is a coui plate nwamp all the year round. 

 This country is so U>w that prubablv the whole delta would be laid 

 under water if the level of the Sea of Aral were raised a few {set. 

 On tb* east of the river Oxus ths cultivable ground is of small 



KHIVA. an 



extent About 42* SO' N. lat begins a tract of higher ground about 

 2 miles firom the river, which runs parallel to it for about 40 miles 

 to the south-east This ridge is about 4 miles wide, and Is called 

 Shikhodshelli ; it rises about 600 feet above its base, and descends 

 gradnally eastward into the desert of Kisil Koum. When this ridge 

 terminates (40* 85*), the cultivated laud probably extends to 5 or 6 

 miles ftom the banks of the Oxus, and here also then are several 

 smaller oanalsi 



Siren and OanaU. — The river Oxru, whose modem name is i4stoo 

 Deria, or Jyhun, originates in the elevated mountain region called 

 the IVble-land of Pamir. [Badakbsban.] There it issues firom a 

 lake called Sir-i-kol, which is about 14 milee long from east to 

 west, with an average breadth of 1 mile, and near 87° 27' \. lat, 

 73* 40' E. long. Pliny mentions the fact of its rising in a lake, which 

 was supposed to be a blunder, until this lake was discovered a few 

 years ago by Lieutenant Wood. After leaving Badakhshan tbe Oxus 

 flaws west through the south of Bokhara, and having passed the 

 meridian of Balkh (67° E. long.), its course declinee more to the north- 

 west, and in that direction it continues to the boundary-line of Khyva, 

 watering the adjacent country fur more than 250 miles. The country 

 which it traverses is unSt fur cultivation, except in tbe immediate 

 vicinity of the river, where the fields are irrigated from it It is 

 here a rapid stream and navigable, but not far from the boundary- 

 line between Bokhara and Khyva rapids are said to exist, which ara 

 full of rocks, and during low-water dangerous to be passed by boats. 

 In this middle part of its course the Uxus is not joined by any 

 permanent stream. 



The lower course of the Oxus, from the above-mentioned rapids, 

 above the Bokharian fortress of Charobui, or Chaoijee, to its mouth 

 in the Sea of Aral, probably exceeds 600 miles in length, and its 

 whole course amounts to nearly 1300 miles. Nearly 200 miles of its 

 lower course lie through a desert co\mtry, similar to that traversed by 

 it in its midille course, but there docs not occur any obstruction to 

 navigation, and it is navigated. The river reaches Khyva proper near 

 41° N. lat., and traverses it in one bed as far north as 42° 20' N. lat, or 

 upwardsof 100 miles. Its course is turned by the northern extremity 

 of Mount Sbikhodshilli to the west, and a few miles lower down the 

 river divides into two arms, of which the smaller, called Lowdahn, 

 continues to run in a western direction about 50 miles, when it falls 

 into Lake Ak-Cheganak. This lake is situated near tbe base of the 

 table-land of Usturt, and at a distance of more than 100 mites from 

 the Sea of Aral It extends about 30 miles from east to west On its 

 northern side begins a deep depression, which extends along the base 

 of the table-land to the Sea of Aral, and has a mean breadth of 

 15 miles. It is entirely filled with water even in winter, when the 

 level of the Oxus is lowest, but only to a moderate depth. It is 

 overgrown with reeds, rushes, and other aquatic plants, with the 

 exception of a comparatively narrow strip in the middle, which is 

 unincumbered, and where a perceptible current runs to the Sea of 

 Aral. The water of this swampy tract ia sweet Nearly halfway 

 between the place where the Lowdahn branches off from the Oxus 

 and its influx into Lake Ak-Cheganak, it sends off a branch to the 

 south-west, which is called Szarkrauk, and passes near the town of 

 Kana (Old) Ourghenj, but its farther course is not known. 



From the place whore the Lowdahn branches off tbe main stream 

 of the Oxus runs due north about 10 or 12 miles, and then sends off 

 an arm to the north-east, called KookVlHak, which, after a course of 

 more than 30 miles, falls iuto a lake called Daukara. Prom this lake 

 a swampy depression similar to that of Lake Ak-Cheganak is stated 

 to extend to tbe Aral ; but this fact rests only on the information of 

 the natives. From tbe efflux of the Kook-Usak the Oxus mns again 

 north-west, and sends a branch, called Kara-Baili, to Lake Daukara, 

 and two smaller ones, Kiatt Char);an and Kok-Daria, to the depression 

 north of Lake Ak-Cheganak. Farther on, at a distance of about 

 30 miles, the Oxus divide.<i into two armx, of which the smaller and 

 western, called Taldyk-Daria, reftcbes the Sea of Aral without 

 dividing any further, but tbe eastern, Ulu-Daria, enters the sea by 

 two arms, of which the eastern is known as Kaaak-Daria. 



Ancient authors who mention the Oxus state that it flowed into 

 the Caspian; Arrian distinctly afiirms this (iii. 29), and the Arab 

 geographers of the middle ages bold the same opinion. Alexander 

 Vou Humboldt is of opioioo that historical facts prove that, as late 

 as A.D. 1500, the Oxus still carried its waters to Uie Kara-Bogas. 

 The most decisive proof he finds in the ' Theatrum Orbis Terrarum ' 

 of Ortelius (1670), where an account and map of Russia and Tartary 

 are found, which both had previously (1562) been published in 

 London, by Anthony Jenkinson, the agent of the Russia Company, 

 who was sent to entablish a cummercial intercourse with central Asia 

 by the way of the White Sea and Moscow. The title of Jenkinson's 

 work is, ' Russiae, Musooviae, et Tartariae Deecriptio, Aucture Antonio 

 Jenkinsonio, Anglo, edita Londini, 1562, et deilicats 111. D. Henrico 

 Sydneo, Walliae Praesidi.' In this map the Oxus is laid down as 

 falling into a large arm of the Caspian at 41° N. lat This is evidently 

 the lagujie of Kara-Bogas, but it appears that at the time of bis 

 travels (1669) the Isgune advanced much farther eastward, which 

 diange may have bean produced by a change in the level of the 

 Caspuo. & his account Jenkinson states that the water of the Oxus 

 no longer reached the bay as it formerly did, and he attributes this 



