AMERICAN FOKESTKY 



This andenl canal system was destroyed by Ghengis Kahn and the valley 

 wm conaeqoently depopulated. It was rebuilt by a grandson of Tamerlane 

 in ,!. Fifteenth Century. 



h, i7!i!i tli,' system as rebuilt was destroyed by the Emir of Bokhara, 

 ,! the valk-y was again depopulated and reverted to desert 



UI.T the conquest of Turkestan by the Eussian Government, the valley 

 wta a.l.U'd to the Emperor's Estate and in the years 1887, 1888 and 1889, the 

 ,!; at Sultan Bend was rebuilt for the Emperor by the engineer Kosel- 

 1-nUevskv, a Polish revolutionist, who had been banished to Siberia, served 

 his trnn 'ami came to Byram AH. He made brick and hydraulic lime on the 

 -round. of which he built the dam, upon a foundation of loess, which was 



-ni/.ed as unsuitable for a high dam. 



To guard against accident, he built three dams so situated as each to 

 .Maud nn.'-third of the head. The lower two had no gates; the upper one had 

 gai-s. All these dams were built in the dry, at one side of the river. 



After their completion, a dam was built in the river channel of fascenes, 



ranh ami rock, and the water accumulated behind during the low water 



ion. As ii was closed, the bank was cut above the three dams to allow it 



tu pa-s through the gates therein provided, but instead of doing so, it cut a 



new rliannel leaving the dams high and dry. 



In ivCi, an engineer named Andreyeff was employed by the Estate to 

 Imild a dam at Hindu-Rush where a power plant is located, which uses for 

 pi.wt-r i he water that runs down the river to Merv, to satisfy prior rights. 

 Tin- |...wer is transmitted to Byram Ali, and used for lighting and running 

 tin- cotton machinery. The capacity of this reservoir is 10,000 acre feet. There 

 an- three valley reservoirs with a combined capacity of 23,000 acre feet. 



The canal system from the Hindu-Kush Eeservoir was built by Von- 

 Valiit-ir. The main canal was 17 miles in length and is called the Tzar 

 It has a capacity of 500 cubic feet per second and irrigates 5,000 

 acrw of cotton and 7,000 acres of wheat and barley. 



In April and May, 1903, came great floods which filled the Hindu-Kush 

 I;, -rrvoir with sediment. 



In 11)10, Von Valueff built the Sultan Bend and Yolatan Eeservoir. Thes* 



i apart. Yolatan Eeservoir holds 55,000 acre feet and backs water 



Rend, which is located at the head of the valley, near the site of 



be ..n^nal dam built by the Sultan Sanjar in the Twelfth Century. 



^Moj.1 of the structures are built of brick and are very heavy and sub- 



;i< n 



Tieml Eeservoir backs water 40 versts and has a capacity of 55, 



000 



r the Emperor ' s Estate * 



rapully decrease with accretion of sediment. 



:M| has a capacity of 800 cubic feet per 



