River · Kyrgyzstan
Naryn
The Naryn is the longest river of Kyrgyzstan. It starts among the glaciers of the Tian Shan mountains and runs about 807 kilometres westwards, joining another river near Namangan to form the Syr Darya.
Picture credit: Сайга20К (CC BY-SA 3.0) · Ninara (CC BY 2.0) · Radosław Botev (CC BY 3.0 pl) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is the Naryn?
The river starts here: glaciers of the Tian Shan mountains in Kyrgyzstan.
It ends in the joins to form the Syr Darya near Namangan.
Countries on the river: Kyrgyzstan.
The story behind it
The Naryn is born high in the Tian Shan, where glaciers and snowfields melt through the short mountain summer. Its icy water races through gorges with rock walls hundreds of metres high, then slows where the valley opens out. Here shepherds bring horses and sheep to summer pastures, and the small town of Naryn shares its name with the river. Several dams hold the water back in long reservoirs and produce much of the electricity used in Kyrgyzstan. Experts do not fully agree on how long the river really is, because at Namangan it loses its name and continues as the Syr Darya. That water then travels on across the dry plains of Central Asia, where it is led into fields of cotton, wheat and melons far from any mountain.
Questions children ask
How long is the Naryn?
The Naryn is usually given as about 807 kilometres long. The figure is debated, because downstream the same water flows on under the name Syr Darya.
Which countries does the Naryn flow through?
Most of the Naryn lies in Kyrgyzstan, the country it belongs to in this encyclopedia. Its last stretch reaches the Fergana Valley, where the river ends at the meeting point near Namangan.
Where does the Naryn end?
The Naryn does not reach a sea. Near Namangan it meets another river, and from that point the water continues as the Syr Darya across Central Asia.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
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