Doon Valley
The Doon Valley is an unusually wide, long valley within the Sivalik Hills in the Lower Himalayas, in the state of Uttarakhand, India. Within the valley lies the city of Dehradun, the capital of Uttarakhand state.
Etmology
Doon or Dun (Hindi: दून) is a local word for valley, particularly an open valley in the Sivaliks or between the Sivaliks and higher Himalayan foothills. Other valleys in this region have names like Patli Dun, Kothri Dun, Pinjore Dun in Himachal Pradesh. Such valleys are termed Inner Terai in Nepal.
Geography
The Doon valley lies between two intermittent ranges of the Himalayas. It is bounded on all sides by mountains, with one range running from the west to the east (with Mussorie at the centre) in a semi-circular arc; and one running at the south from Poanta Sahib to Haridwar. The valley also forms a watershed between the Yamuna and Ganges river systems. In fact the Yamuna and Ganges are closest to each other as they pass the Doon valley, with the Yamuna forming the western boundary and the Ganges the east.
Important areas
Kalesar National Park and Jaunsar-Bawar region lie within the valley as well.
Towns
- Dehradun
- Vikas Nagar
- Narendra Nagar
See also
- List of valleys of India
- Inner Terai Valleys of Nepal
Further reading
- The Doon valley across the years, by Ganesh Saili. Publisher: Rupa & Co., 2007.
External links
- Dehradun
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press