Geographical position of the Urals

The ancient ridge of the Ural Mountains stretching for two thousand kilometres presents a natural boundary between Europe and Asia, at the same time, a link, a steel seam, tying up the two parts of the world in a single grand Continent of Eurasia.

The Ural Mountains, which are also called the Stone Belt, extend for 2500 km from hot Kazakh Steppes to the frozen coast of the Arctic Ocean.

Geographers divided the Urals info five regions: South, Middle, North, Subarctic and Arctic Urals.

The climate is extreme continental: winters are cold (minus 16-20°C in January), and summers are warm (plus 16-25 °C in July). There are years, though, when it rains in December and snows in June. The weather in the Urals is characteristic more of Asia, rather than of Europe. The town of Ivdel stands in the latitude of St Petersburg, but the weather in January there is two times colder than in the city on the Neva. The region's mountainous landscape is a factor that influences strongly its climate.

The widest part of the Urals comprises dozens of parallel ridges. It is bounded in the North and the South by the valleys of Ufalei and Ural rivers and is called the South Urals. The highest mountains of the South Urals - Yamantau (1640 m) and Bolshoi kernel (1582 m) - are located in the western row of the ridges.

The Middle Urals presents the most lived-in-part of the Urals. The major transport routes connecting the European Russia and Siberia pass here. The legendary Chusovaya river - the only river in the Urals that crosses the mountain chains from the east to the west - runs its waters in the Middle Urals.

The North Urals extends strictly in the meridional direction up to the latitudinal section of the valley of the Shchuger river. Telposiz (the "Nest of Winds") is the highest mountain (1617 m).

The highest land of the Stone Belt is the Subarctic Urals.

At the head of the Khulga river, where the Subarctic Urals and the Arctic Urals meet, the range is presented by a narrow chain of mountains which are practically unfrosted and open to all winds.

There are more than 30 thousand lakes in the Urals. The most famous of them are Shartash and Baltym lakes not far away from Ekaterinburg and lots of Chelyabinsk lakes known by their beauty.

The land of the Urals owns considerable forest resources: its share in the total volume of state timber purchasing amounts to 15 percent.

The main routes from Europe to Kazakhstan, Middle Asia and Siberia pass through the Urals - and here the role of Transsiberian main line is most important.

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