Zeravshan River (also Zarafshan or Zarafshon, Tajik: Дарёи Зарафшон, Uzbek: Zarafshon, from the Persian word Persian: زرافشان zar-afshān, meaning "the sprayer of gold") is a river in Central Asia. Its name, "sprayer of gold" in Persian, refers to the presence of gold-bearing sands in the upper reaches of the river. To the ancient Greeks it was known as the 'Polytimetus'. It was also formerly known as Sughd River.
It rises at on the fringes of the Pamirs in Tajikistan, flowing due west for some 300 kilometres (190 mi), passing Penjikent before entering Uzbekistan at , where it turns west-to-north-west, flowing past the legendary city of Samarkand, which is entirely dependent on the oasis thus created, until it bends left again to the west north of Navoiy and further to the south-west, passing Bukhara before it is lost in the desert beyond the city of Qorako‘l (Karakul), not quite reaching the Amu Darya, of which it was formerly a tributary.