Balkh, anciently called Bactria, a district of Afghan Turkestan lying between the Oxus and the Hindu-Kush, 250 m. long and 120 m. broad, with a capital of the same name, reduced now to a village; birthplace of Zoroaster.
Definition taken from The Nuttall Encyclopædia, edited by the Reverend James Wood (1907)
Balkash, Lake * Ball, John