a $720 million four-year investment deal with the Taliban government of Afghanistan for extraction on its side of the Amu Darya basin. The deal will see a 15% royalty given to the Afghan government over the course of its 25-year term. The Chinese see this basin as the third-largest potential gas field in the world. Literature The Oxus river, and Arnold's poem, fire the imaginations of the children who adventure with ponies over the moors of the West Country in the 1930s children's book The Far-Distant Oxus. There were two sequels, Escape to Persia and Oxus in Summer. Robert Byron's 1937 travelogue, The Road to Oxiana, describes its author's journey from the Levant through Persia to Afghanistan, with the Oxus as his stated goal. George MacDonald Fraser's Flashman at the Charge, (1973), places Flashman on the Amu Darya and the Aral Sea during the (fictitious) Russian advance on India during The Great Game period. See also Oxus Treasure Vankhsh River Mount Imeon Sherabad River Surkhan Darya Transoxiana Zeravshan River Extreme points of Afghanistan List of rivers of Afghanistan Notes References Further reading Curzon, George Nathaniel. 1896. The Pamirs and the Source of the Oxus. Royal Geographical Society, London. Reprint: Elibron Classics Series, Adamant Media Corporation. 2005. (pbk; (hbk). Gordon, T. E. 1876. The Roof of the World: Being the Narrative of a Journey over the high plateau of Tibet to the Russian Frontier and the Oxus sources on Pamir. Edinburgh. Edmonston and Douglas. Reprint by Ch'eng Wen Publishing Company. Taipei. 1971. Toynbee, Arnold J. 1961. Between Oxus and Jumna. London. Oxford University Press. Wood, John, 1872. A Journey to the Source of the River Oxus. With an essay on the Geography of the Valley of the Oxus by Colonel Henry Yule. London: John Murray. External links The Amu Darya Basin Network Rivers of Afghanistan Rivers of Tajikistan Rivers of Turkmenistan Rivers of Uzbekistan International rivers of Asia Afghanistan–Turkmenistan border Afghanistan–Tajikistan border Afghanistan–Uzbekistan border Turkmenistan–Uzbekistan border Border rivers Landforms of Badakhshan Province Siberian Tiger Re-population Project Rivers in Buddhism