Zaranj

Zaranj زرنج Zarange
Afghan and US officials walking on one of the main streets of Zaranj
Zaranj Location in Afghanistan
Coordinates: 30°57′36″N 61°51′36″E / 30.96000°N 61.86000°E / 30.96000; 61.86000Coordinates: 30°57′36″N 61°51′36″E / 30.96000°N 61.86000°E / 30.96000; 61.86000
Country	Afghanistan
Province	Nimruz Province
District	Zaranj District
Elevation	476 m (1,562 ft)
Population (2015)
• City	49,851
• Urban	160,902
Time zone	UTC+4:30

Zaranj or Zarang (Persian/Pashto/Balochi: زرنج‎‎) is a city in southwestern Afghanistan, near the border with Iran, which has a population of 160,902 people as of 2015. It is the capital of Nimruz province and is linked by highways with Lashkar Gah to the east, Farah to the north and the Iranian city of Zabol to the west. Zaranj serves as the border crossing between Afghanistan and Iran, which is of significant importance to the trade-route between Central Asia and South Asia with the Middle East.

Zaranj is a Trading and Transit Hub in western Afghanistan, on the border with Iran. There are 17,878 residential dwellings in Zarat and 1,759 hectares of agricultural land. Commercial land use is clustered on the main road to Iran.

Modern Zaranj bears the name of an ancient city whose name is also attested in Old Persian as Zranka. In Greek, this word became Drangiana. Other historical names for Zaranj include Zirra, Zarangia, Zarani etc. Ultimately the word Zaranj is derived from the ancient Old Persian word zaranka ("waterland"; cf. Pashto dzaranda). The region of Drangiana where the Helmand or the Hindmand meets Hamun-e-helmand and creates a fertile inland delta was known in Sassanid times as 'kuchak-e-hind' or 'little India'.

Achaemenid Zranka, the capital of Drangiana, was almost certainly located at Dahan-e Gholaman, southeast of Zabol in Iran. After the abandonment of that city, its name, Zarang or Zaranj in later Perso-Arabic orthography, was transferred to the subsequent administrative centers of the region, which itself came to be known as Sakastān, then Sijistan and finally Sistān. Medieval Zaranj is located at Nād-i `Alī, 4.4 km north of the modern city of Zaranj. According to the Arab geographers, prior to medieval Zaranj, the capital of Sistan was located at Ram Shahristan (Abrashariyar). Ram Shahristan had been supplied with water by a canal from the Helmand River, but its dam broke, the area was deprived of water, and the populace moved three days' march to found Zaranj.