Qarshi, city in southern Uzbekistan, in Qashqadaryo province about 520 km (about 325 mi) south-southwest of Toshkent, the country's capital, and about 335 km (about 210 mi) north of Uzbekistan's border with Afghanistan. In the early 1970s the first section of a major irrigation project was completed to divert water from the Amu Darya River in Turkmenistan eastward into Uzbekistan to irrigate the land surrounding Qarshi. The water from the Amu Darya is in addition to water already being diverted from the Zeravshan River near Bukhoro, about 160 km (about 100 mi) northwest of Qarshi. Almost all of the irrigated lands around Qarshi are planted with cotton. The city is important in natural gas production; the Shurtan gas field and a large processing facility are located northwest of the city. Qarshi has been linked by rail with Toshkent and Almaty, Kazakhstan, since the completion of a single-track rail line in 1970. Qarshi is famous for its production of woven flat carpets. Qarshi has a teacher-training institute and a music and drama theater.
Although records are sparse, Qarshi is at least 1000 years old. Qarshi sits along an ancient caravan route from Samarqand through Bukhoro and into Afghanistan and India. The city was named Nakhshab until the 14th century when a Turkish fort was built and named Karshi, the Turkish word for fort. Population (1994) 177,000.
