Where is the source of the Oxus? This was the essential question of the Great Game. The river’s source was designated as the official border between the Russian Empire and British India, but no one knew where it lay. Countless expeditions were dispatched by both sides to Afghanistan’s Wakhan Corridor, the imperial no man’s land, in a bid to find it. They were led by an eclectic line up of military officers, politicians, diplomats, and spies. Famous names like Sir Francis Younghusband and Lord Curzon were amongst them. These colonial explorers identified multiple sources for the river, but they were unable to agree which one was the true source.
In summer 2024, our all female team with links to Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and the UK will return to the Wakhan Corridor to finally answer the question. Using modern technology, we will pinpoint the known sources and measure their respective volumes of water flow; and also trek into the Nikolai Range to find the ultimate source of the Chelab Stream, which geographers have hypothesised splits and flows into both Lake Chaqmaqtin and the Little Pamir, but have thus far been unable to prove.
Once we have confirmed the true source of the Oxus, we will follow the river 2,540 km across Central Asia to the Aral Sea. Passing through Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and back into Uzbekistan, we will explore issues such as water conflict, border security, the sustainability of agriculture, and environmental degradation, all of which are closely tied to the story and geography of the river.
In spite of being Central Asia’s longest river, the Oxus (known locally as the Amu Darya) now peters out in the desert before reaching the Aral Sea. The last part of the expedition will cross the former sea bed, a place plagued with dust storms and littered with the rusty skeletons of ships. Soviet-era mismanagement of the water supply resulted in one of the most serious environmental disaster of the 20th century, and the Aral Sea is still shrinking. The sea is a poignant place for our journey to end, even though it’s now cut off from the river which created it, because it’s a reminder of the importance of not only understanding, but protecting the water resources on which we all depend.
The Oxus Expedition will travel 2,540km from the source of the Oxus River in Afghanistan’s Wakhan Corridor, across Central Asia to the Aral Sea.
Expedition leader Sophie Ibbotson is a researcher, consultant, and writer specialising in Afghanistan and Central Asia. She is Chairman of the Royal Society for Asian Affairs, and a 2023/24 Visiting Fellow at the Changing Character of War Centre at Oxford University, where she is researching water conflict. Sophie is an advisor to the World Bank’s Rural Economy Development Project in Tajikistan and has led four previous expeditions to the Wakhan Corridor.
Sophia Nina Burna-Asefi is a consultant at the IFC and is based in Tashkent. She has lived and worked in Central Asia for over a decade and advises on private sector reform, economic development, and geopolitical risk in emerging and frontier markets. She has masters degrees in Russian Studies from University College London and in Politics and International Relations from the University of Aberdeen, and is fluent in English, Russian, Uzbek, and Dari.
Miskola Abdulloeva is an entrepreneur from Tajikistan. She co-founded Yeti Hostel in Dushanbe and Orom Travel, a leading tour operator; and is also a Representation Manager for The Adventure Connection. Miskola was Tajikistan’s first member of the Adventure Travel Trade Association (ATTA) and was a 2020/21 Chevening Scholar at the University of Greenwich, where she received her MA in Travel and Tourism.
Kamila Erkaboyeva is an interior architect turned cultural consultant specialising in Central Asia and the Caucasus. She works for Maximum Exposure and divides her time between her birth country of Uzbekistan and the UK, where she has lived for nearly 20 years. Kamila takes a particular interest in intangible cultural heritage, media engagement, and cross-cultural communication. She speaks English, Russian, Turkish, and Uzbek.
Once we crossed the border from Uzbekistan to Afghanistan, we still had many days to travel by road. From Mazar-i Sharif to Faizabad, then Ishkashim, and along the Wakhan Corridor, with several stops for bureaucracy along the way.
What to do when you’re in Termez longer than expected? Visit Fayaz Tepe and Kara Tepe to learn about the Buddhist history of Central Asia! Did you know that Buddhism spread from India to Uzbekistan in part along the River Oxus?
Meet our fourth woman, a complete newbie. Even to camping!
Everyone says the Aral Sea is gone — too salty, too polluted, lifeless. But beneath the morning sun, I couldn’t resist the chance to swim in its surreal, silent waters. Floating in the salt, laughing alone, it became an unexpected moment of joy and wonder.
Read Sophia Burna-Asefi’s article about the historical signicance of the Oxus Expedition in the Rivers issue of Caravanserai magazine.
Journalist Dani Redd profiled Oxus Expedition’s team member Miskola Abdulloeva for Much Better Adventures.
