Lakes
The lowest part of the Sistan Basin contains a series of shallow lakes, known as hamuns . It appears that in the past there was a single Hamun Lake, [3] but there are now three separate lakes. From north to south the lakes are:
Hamun-e Puzak
The Hamun-e Puzak lies mostly in Afghanistan. It receives water from the Shelah Charkh channel of the Helmand River, and also from the Khash River and other small rivers. [4]
Hamun-e Sabari
The Hamun-e Sabari is split between Afghanistan and Iran. It receives water from the Parian branch of Helmand River, the Farah River and the Harut River. [4]
Hamun-e Hirmand [5]
The largest proportion of the Helmand River's waters flow into the Hamun-e Helmand, which is entirely in Iran, by a channel known as the Rud-e Sistan.
Hydrology
In times of flood the hamuns join into one large lake, and once every 20 years or so the floodwaters create an overflow from the Hamun-e Helmand by a normally dry river known as the Shela Rud, terminating in the Godzareh Depression. In 1885 there was an exceptional flood, and the floodwaters filled the depression for three years. [4]
In recent years, particularly during a drought from 1998 to 2005, the hamuns have dried up completely. [4]
Archaeology
For more than 5,000 years, the Sistan Basin has been inhabited by sophisticated cultures and thus contains some key archaeological sites. The Shahr-e Sukhteh, or "Burnt City", in Iran, built in 3100 B.C. near a currently dried-up branch of the Helmand River, was abandoned one thousand years later, most likely due climate changes that altered the river course.
Also, Shahdad, located further to the west, on the western side of Lut desert, is a related site from the Bronze Age.
Kang and Zaranj in Afghanistan were major medieval cultural hubs, now covered by sand. Here, signs of historical irrigation systems, including canals, are still visible in the Dasht-e Margo and Chakhansur areas while elsewhere canals are filled with silt and agricultural fields buried by shifting sand. Today the area is sparsely populated. [1]
Excavations have also revealed a citadel complex, and the remains of a Zoroastrian fire temple, on Mount Khajeh.
There are other important sites in this area.
The Helmandriver, also spelled Helmend, or Helmund, Hirmand, is the longest river in Afghanistan and the primary watershed for the endorheic Sistan Basin. It originates in the Sanglakh Range of the Hindu Kush mountains in the northeastern part of Maidan Wardak Province, where it is separated from the watershed of the Kabul River by the Unai Pass. The Helmand feeds into the Hamun Lake on the border of Afghanistan and Iran.
Zabol is a city in the Central District of Zabol County, Sistan and Baluchestan province, Iran, serving as capital of both the county and the district. Zabol is near the border with Afghanistan.
Nimruz or Nimroz is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the southwestern part of the country. It lies to the east of the Sistan and Baluchestan Province of Iran and north of Balochistan, Pakistan, also bordering the Afghan provinces of Farah and Helmand. It has a population of about 186,963 people. The province is divided into five districts, encompassing about 649 villages.
Lake Hāmūn, or the Hamoun Oasis, is a seasonal lake and wetlands in the endorheic Sīstān Basin in the Sistan region on the Afghanistan–Iran border. In Iran, it is also known as Hāmūn-e Helmand, Hāmūn-e Hīrmand, or Daryāche-ye Sīstān.
Drangiana or Zarangiana (Greek: Δραγγιανή, Drangianē; also attested in Old Western Iranian as 𐏀𐎼𐎣, Zraka or Zranka, was a historical region and administrative division of the Achaemenid Empire. This region comprises territory around Hamun Lake, wetlands in endorheic Sistan Basin on the Iran-Afghan border, and its primary watershed Helmand river in what is nowadays southwestern region of Afghanistan.
The Kajaki Dam is "an earth and rockfill embankment type dam" located on the Helmand River in the Kajaki District of Helmand Province in Afghanistan, about 161 km (100 mi) northwest of Kandahar. It has a hydroelectric power station, which is operated by the Helmand and Arghandab Valley Authority through the Ministry of Energy and Water.
Zabol County is in Sistan and Baluchestan province, Iran. Its capital is the city of Zabol.
Sistān, also known as Sakastān and Sijistan, is a historical region in present-day south-eastern Iran, south-western Afghanistan and extending across the borders of south-western Pakistan. Mostly corresponding to the then Achaemenid region of Drangiana and extending southwards of the Helmand River not far off from the city of Alexandria in Arachosia. Largely desert, the region is bisected by the Helmand River, the largest river in Afghanistan, which empties into the Hamun Lake that forms part of the border between Iran and Afghanistan.
Oshida or Mount Khwaja or Mount Khwajeh is a flat-topped black basalt hill rising up as an island in the middle of Lake Hamun, in the Iranian province of Sistan and Baluchestan.
The Gowd-i zerrah, i.e., Zerrah Depression is the lowest part of an inland drainage basin covering large parts of southern Afghanistan and Iran known as the Sistan Basin. The Sistan Basin is an endorheic basin and encompasses a complex system of rivers, shallow lakes, marshes and wetlands as its watershed, draining into the Hamun Lakes in southeastern Iran. Occasional outflows from these lakes are carried back into Afghanistan by the seasonal Shile river to the basin's terminus, the Godzareh depression in Afghanistan. The depression is flat and very shallow with fine textured sediment at its lowest portions. The lowest section of the Godzareh depression is 467 m above sea level. The depression only receives runoff water when the main tributaries are overflowing every 10 years on the average.
The Helmand and Arghandab Valley Authority (HAVA) based in Lashkar Gah, Afghanistan, originally named the Helmand Valley Authority (HVA) until its expansion in 1965, was established on December 4, 1952, as an agency of the Afghan Government. The agency was modeled on the Tennessee Valley Authority in the United States, with a remit covering lands in Farah Province, Ghazni Province, Helmand Province, Herat Province, and Kandahar Province.
Hamun-e Jaz Murian is an inland basin or depression in southeast Iran, straddling the provinces of Kerman and Sistan-Baluchistan. The area of Hamoon and Jazmourian basin stretches to 69,600 square kilometers, with the western part of 35,600 square kilometers in Kerman province and the eastern part of 34,000 square kilometers in Sistan-Baluchestan province.
A hamun refers to inland desert lakes or marshlands, formed as natural seasonal reservoirs in areas adjoining the Helmand basin, found across eastern Iran, southern Afghanistan and western Pakistan. They form a critical link in the wildlife of the area, aquatic as well as avian and terrestrial.
Iranrud which means Iran River in Persian, was a plan to build a canal from the Caspian Sea to the Persian Gulf. The former Soviet Union was eager to realize this project because its only warm water ports led to the Strait of Istanbul and the Dardanelles, which were under the control of Turkey, a NATO country.
The 120-day wind or wind of 120 days is a strong summer wind occurring from late May to late September in the east and southeast of the Iranian Plateau, particularly the Sistan Basin. It is so called because it lasts for four months. The typical wind speed is 30–40 kilometres per hour (19–25 mph) or less, but it can occasionally exceed 100–110 kilometres per hour (60–70 mph). Strong speeds are caused by the topography surrounding the region. The wind moves fairly consistently south-to-southeastward; along with the shamal, it is one of two well-known winds in Iran.
The Khash River is a river in Afghanistan.
The Afghanistan–Iran border is 921 km (572 mi) in length and runs from the tripoint with Turkmenistan in the north to the tripoint with Pakistan in the south.
The Registan–North Pakistan sandy desert ecoregion covers the dry Sistan Basin of southern Afghanistan and portions of eastern Iran and southwest Pakistan. The Registan Desert is the eastern portion of the Sistan Basin. The region is almost entirely dry sandy desert, with some irrigated cropland along the rivers. There are some seasonal wetlands at the western terminus of the Helmand River into Hamun Lake. The region support five endemic species of reptiles.
Hamoon Jazmourian Basin is a Endorheic basin of Iran. In the classification of basins in Iran, it is considered a sub-basin and is a subset of the Central Plateau Basin. The area of this basin is 69,390 square kilometers and the rivers and canals of this basin enter Hamoon Jazmourian Lake.
