The Ural River

The Ural River is a river in Eastern Europe, flows through the territory of Russia and Kazakhstan, flows into the Caspian Sea.

It originates on the slopes of the summit of the Round Hill (Uraltau Ridge) in the Uchalinsky District of Bashkortostan. Falls into Caspian Sea. In the beginning, the Urals flow from north to south, meeting the same high plateau of the Kazakh steppe, turning sharply to the north-west, after Orenburg it changes direction to the south-west, near the city of Uralsk the river makes a new steep bend to the south and in this main direction, Then to the west, then to the east, it flows into the Caspian Sea. The mouth of the Urals is divided into several branches and gradually becomes shallow. In 1769, Pallas counted nineteen sleeves, some of which were allocated by the Urals in 66000 meters above the confluence of it into the sea; In 1821 there were only nine, in 1846, only three: Yaitskoe, Zolotinsky and Peretasknoe. By the end of the 50-x and the beginning of the 60-ies of the XIX century to the city of Guryev, no sleeves with a constant flow from the Urals almost did not separate. The first sleeve, separated from the main channel on the left, was the Shovel, which was divided into the channels of Peretasknaya and Aleksashkin. Even further, the channel of the Urals was divided into 2 sleeves - Zolotinsky and Yaitsky, both first and second divided into two estuaries: Bolshoye and Malye Yaitskoe, Bolshoi and Staroe Zolotinskoe. From the Zolotinsky sleeve to the east was another branch, Bukharka, flowing into the sea between Peretask and Zoloty. The Urals basin is the sixth largest river in Russia and equals 237 000 km². The length of the river itself is estimated at 2428 km. The water horizon is at an absolute height of 635 m.

The fall of the Urals is not particularly large; From the upper reaches to Orsk it has about 0,9 meters for 1 kilometer, from Orsk to Uralsk no more than 30 centimeters for 1 kilometer, lower - even less. The width of the channel is generally small, but diverse. The bottom of the Urals, stony in the upper reaches, clayey and sandy in the greater part of the current, and within the Ural region there are stone ridges. Under the Urals bottom of the river is lined with small pebbles, which is found somewhat larger in the White Hills; A special pebble from dense clay, in addition, falls in some places in the lower reaches of the Urals (in "Broken Bow"). The course of the Urals is rather tortuous and forms a large number of loops. Ural, with a small drop in water, throughout the course of time very often changes the main channel, breaks through new routes, leaving deep ponds, or "old people" in all directions. Due to the changing course of the Urals, many Cossack villages that used to be on the river turned out to be later on elderly people, the inhabitants of other villages had to move to new places only because their old ashes were gradually undermined and demolished by the river. In general, the Ural valley is cut on both sides by starets, narrow canals, enlarged channels, lakes, small lakes; During the spring water diversion, which occurs from the melting of snow on the Ural Mountains, they are all filled with water, which is kept in others until next year. In the spring rivers and streams carry a lot of thawed water to the Urals, the river overflows, comes out of the banks, in the same places where the banks are sloping, the river spills over 3-7 meters. The Urals are not very navigable. Here are found sturgeon, stellate sturgeon, carp, catfish, pike perch, bream, catfish, fox. Also from the river is a water pipeline to oil fields.

Contrary to the general misconception, the Ural River is the natural water boundary between Asia and Europe only in its upper reaches in Russia. The border passes in Verkhneuralsk and Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk region. In Kazakhstan, the geographic boundary between Europe and Asia runs south from Orsk along the Mugodzhary ridge. Thus, the Ural River is an internal European river, only the Russian upper reaches of the river east of the Ural range belong to Asia. Preliminary results of the expedition of the Russian Geographical Society in Kazakhstan in April-May 2010 in Kazakhstan showed that carrying out the border of Europe and Asia along the Ural River, as well as along the Emba, does not have sufficient scientific grounds. The fact is that south of Zlatoust The Ural range, Losing the axis, splits into several parts, then the mountains and altogether gradually go to zero, that is, disappears the main landmark when carrying out the border. The Ural and Emba rivers do not divide anything, because the terrain they cross is identical.

The Urals, in general, are not very navigable, but it is produced in small sizes by rafting forests to the cities of Orenburg and Uralsk. Below Uralsk, the alloy is allowed in spring on special tickets, and, as an exception.