Chu River

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The Chu (or Chui or Chuy) (Russian: Чу, Kyrgyz: Чүй, Kazakh: Шу) is a river in northern Kyrgyzstan and southern Kazakhstan. At approximately 1,300 km in length, it is one of the longest rivers in Kyrgyzstan.

The Chu starts in the northern Kyrgyz ranges of the western Tian Shan. After approaches Lake Issyk Kul within a few kilometers (near Balykchy), without either flowing into the lake or draining it, it turns to the northwest. After passing through the narrow Boom Gorge (Russian: Боомское ущелье), it enters the comparatively flat Chuy Valley, within which the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek and the Kazakh city of Shu are located. Much of the Chu's water is diverted into a network of canals to irrigate the fertile black soils of the Chuy Valley for farming, both on the Kyrgyz and Kazakh sides of the river.

As the Chu flows through the Chuy Valley, it forms the border between Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan for more than a hundred kilometers, but then it leaves Kyrgyzstan and flows into Kazakhstan, where, like many other rivers and streams that drain northern Kyrgyzstan it eventually disappears in the steppe.

The area of this river was originally home to the Iranian Sughds who spoke Soghdian, an East Iranian language.^[1]

During the Middle Ages, the area was strategically important. It was the setting of Suayub, the capital of the Western Turkic Khaganate, and Balasagun, the capital of the Kara-Khitans.

Chuy Oblast, the northernmost and most populous administrative region of Kyrgyzstan, is named after the river; so are the Chuy Avenue, the main street of Bishkek, and the city of Shu in Kazakhstan's Zhambyl Province.

In the Boom Gorge	In the Chuy Valley below Tokmok	A medieval balbal near Burana Tower in the Chuy Valley	In the Chuy Valley near Milyanfan
Near Korday border crossing	Near Shu, Kazakhstan

[edit] Sources

^ Barthold, W. "Balāsāg̲h̲ūn or Balāsaḳūn." Encyclopaedia of Islam. Edited by: P. Bearman , Th. Bianquis , C.E. Bosworth , E. van Donzel and W.P. Heinrichs. Brill, 2008. Brill Online. UNIVERSITEITSBIBLIOTHEEK LEIDEN. 11 March 2008 <http://www.brillonline.nl/subscriber/entry?entry=islam_SIM-1131>