Daroot-Korgon

Daroot-Korgon (also Daraut-Kurghan or Darautkorgon or Daroot-Qurghan) is a village in the western Alay Valley of Osh Region, Kyrgyzstan. It is the capital of Chong-Alay District. Its population was 6,421 in 2021.^[1] It is about 90 km west of Sary-Tash on the river Kyzyl-Suu. To the north is a route to Osh via the Tengizbay pass, used by Russian explorers before the construction of the road though Sary-Tash.

Daroot-Korgon Дароот-Коргон
Daroot-Korgon
Coordinates: 39°33′12″N 72°12′0″E
Country	Kyrgyzstan
Region	Osh
District	Chong-Alay
Elevation	2,469 m (8,100 ft)
Population  (2021)
• Total	6,421
Time zone	UTC+6

To the south, the Altyn River flows north through a deep valley in the Trans-Alay Range. At the head of the valley is a Tajik border post and then Altyn Mazar on the river Muksu which flows west to join the Kyzyl-Suu. South of this is the foot of the Fedchenko Glacier.

The village of Kara-Shybak is 3 km (2 mi) to the south, and Kyzyl-Eshme is 5 km (3 mi) to the east.

Aurel Stein suggested that this was the location of the "Stone Tower" that Ptolemy in his famous treatise Geography wrote as the place where caravans from the Chinese and Roman Empires met and exchanged goods.^[2][3] Other scholars, however, disagree with this identification, though it remains one of four most probable sites for the Stone Tower.^[4][5]

Population

Historical population

Year	Pop.	±% p.a.
2009	4,726	—
2021	6,421	+2.59%
Note: resident population; Sources:[1][6]

In the Book of Han (2nd century AD), the population of this town, situated in the Alai Valley, is recorded at the time as 1,030.^[7]

Many Pamir Kyrgyz have resettled from Afghanistan to Daroot-Korgon in the 21st century, straining the village's resources.^[8]

References

1. "Population of regions, districts, towns, urban-type settlements, rural communities and villages of Kyrgyz Republic" (XLS) (in Russian). National Statistics Committee of the Kyrgyz Republic. 2021. Archived from the original on 10 November 2021.
2. John E. Hill, Through the Jade Gate,2015, Appendix E. quoting Stein(1932), pp 22-23 and Stein(1928), vol II, pp-847-850. Hill's extract does not explain Stein's reasons.
   If this is true the route east to Kashgar is obvious. The route west would have gone about 25 miles south up the Altyn River and down a 2000-foot slope to the Tadjik border post at Altyn Mazar ('Golden Shrine'). It would follow the Muksu 55 miles west to its junction with the Kyzyl-Suu. It would then follow the Vakhsh River about 140 miles west-southwest until the country becomes flat and then southwest to Balkh. Alternatively the route could have followed the Kyzyl-Suu west until its junction with the Muksu. The hill above Altyn Mazar looks difficult. but if the Kyzyl-Suu route were used there would be no reason for Daroot-Korgan to be a landmark, unless it was some kind of border post.
3. Stein, Aurel (1928). Innermost Asia: Detailed Report of Explorations in Central Asia, Kansu, and Eastern Īrān Carried Out and Described under the Orders of H.M. Indian Government (4 Volumes). Oxford: Clarendon Press. pp. 847–51 (Vol 2).
4. Dean, Riaz (2022). The Stone Tower: Ptolemy, the Silk Road, and a 2,000-Year-Old Riddle. Delhi: Penguin Viking. pp. 131, 134 (Map 4), 164–66. ISBN 978-0670093625.
5. Dean, Riaz (2015). "The Location of Ptolemy's Stone Tower: the Case for Sulaiman-Too in Osh". The Silk Road. 13: 77.
6. "2009 population and housing census of the Kyrgyz Republic: Osh Region" (PDF) (in Russian). National Statistics Committee of the Kyrgyz Republic. 2010. p. 220.
7. Hulsewe and Loewe, A. F. P. and M. A. N. (1979). China in Central Asia, the Early Stage: 125 bc–ad 23. Leiden: Brill. Leiden: Brill. pp. 138, fn 355. ISBN 978-9004058842.
8. Памирские кыргызы: исчезающий народ | АЗИЯ 360° [Pamir Kyrgyz: A disappearing people | Asia 360°] (in Russian and Kyrgyz). Настоящее Время. Док. 31 August 2022. Retrieved 2 September 2022.