부산대학교 도서관

Western Central Asia corresponds to the present-day republics of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, the southern third of Kazakhstan, Afghanistan north of the Hindu Kush, and north-east Iran (see fig.). In terms of natural borders, it is delimited by the Caspian Sea to the west, the Tian shan and Pamir mountain ranges to the east, the Hindu Kush Mountains to the south and south-east, the great deserts of the Iranian plateau—the Dasht-i Kavir and Dasht-i Lut—to the south-west and the southern terminus of the Ural Mountains and the plains of Siberia to the north. In terms of human history and art, western Central Asia comprises a number of large regions: Bactria/Khurasan/Balkh (present-day north-east Iran and north and north-west Afghanistan); Khwarazm/Chorasmia (the Amu delta of present-day Uzbekistan); and Sogdiana/Mawarannahr/Transoxiana/Bukhara/Russian Turkestan (much of present-day Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, especially the Zarafshan Valley with its great oasis settlements at Pendzhikent, Samarkand and Bukhara...