The Ural River is the deepest place. Rivers of the Urals: description, characteristics, features and interesting facts

It is the third longest river in Europe, second only to the Volga and Danube in this indicator.

It flows through the territory of Russia (Bashkortostan, Chelyabinsk and Orenburg regions) and Kazakhstan (West Kazakhstan and Atyrau regions).

It originates in the mountains of the Southern Urals on the slopes of the Kruglaya Sopka peak (Uraltau ridge) in the Uchalinsky region of Bashkortostan. The length is 2428 km, most of the way the river flows through the territory of the Orenburg region (1164 km), in Kazakhstan it is 1082 km. The water horizon is at an absolute height of 635 m.

The old name (before 1775) was Yaik. The hydronym goes back to the ancient Iranian name; The river called *Daiks is shown on Ptolemy's map of the 2nd century AD. e. Currently ancient name The river, having undergone transcription, is official in Kazakhstan and in the Bashkir language.

A. S. Pushkin wrote in “The History of Pugachev”: Yaik, by decree of Catherine II, renamed the Urals, emerges from the mountains that gave it its current name.

On old European maps the Urals are called Rhymnus fluvius.

The first mention in Russian chronicles in 1140: Mstislav drove Polovits beyond the Don beyond the Volga beyond the Yaik.

In Russian, the name Yaik was changed to Ural in 1775 by decree of Catherine II, after the suppression of the Peasant War led by Pugachev, in which the Bashkirs and Yaik Cossacks actively took part.

In the upper reaches to the city of Verkhne-Uralsk it looks like a mountain river; from Verkhne-Uralsk to Magnitogorsk it has the character of a flat river. From Magnitogorsk to Orsk it flows along rocky banks and is replete with riffles. Below the confluence of the river on the right. The Sakmara becomes a typically flat river with a wide winding channel, a calm flow and rare riffles. After the city of Uralsk, the valley widens, and the river forms many channels and oxbow lakes.

In the upper reaches of the Urals the water is shallow, the depth rarely exceeds 1-1.5 m; in the middle and especially lower reaches it is deeper.

In the upper reaches, aquatic vegetation is poorly developed, in the lower reaches it is well developed. The soils in the upper reaches are pebble-sandy, sometimes rocky and silty, in the lower reaches they are silty-sandy, less often clayey.

The Urals freezes in the upper reaches at the beginning of November, in the middle and lower reaches at the end of November, and breaks up from the end of March to mid-April.

The tributaries are small, the largest being the Sakmara and Ilek.

The Urals are rich in feed resources, especially in the lower reaches.

The basin area is 237,000 km² and ranks sixth in size among the rivers of Russia.

Several reservoirs have been built on the Ural River. The largest and most beautiful among them is Iriklinskoye.

The mouth of the Urals is divided into several branches and gradually becomes shallower.

In 1769, Pallas counted nineteen branches, part of which stood out from the Urals 660 meters above its confluence with the sea; in 1821 there were only nine, in 1846 - only three: Yaitskoye, Zolotinskoye and Peretasknoye. By the end of the 50s and the beginning of the 60s of the 19th century, almost no branches with a constant flow were separated from the Urals until the city of Guryev.

The first branch, separated from the main channel on the left, was Peretask, which was divided into the Peretasknaya and Aleksashkin channels. Even lower, the channel of the Urals was divided into 2 branches - Zolotinsky and Yaitsky, and both the first and second were divided into two mouths: Bolshoye and Maloye Yaitskoye, Bolshoye and Staroye Zolotinskoye. Another branch, Bukharka, flowed into the sea between Peretask and Zolotoy.

The fall of the Urals water is not particularly great; from the upper reaches to Orsk it is about 0.9 meters per 1 kilometer, from Orsk to Uralsk no more than 30 centimeters per 1 kilometer, below - even less. The width of the channel is generally insignificant, but varied. The bottom of the Urals is rocky in the upper reaches, but in most parts of its course it is clayey and sandy, and within the Ural region there are stone ridges. Near the Urals, the river bottom is lined with small pebbles, which are found in several large sizes at "White Hills"; special pebbles made of dense clay, in addition, are found in some places in the lower reaches of the Urals (in the “Pogorelaya Luka”).

The current of the Urals is quite tortuous and forms a large number of loops. The Urals, with a small drop in water, very often changes the main channel along its entire length, digs new passages for itself, leaving deep reservoirs, or “oxbow lakes,” in all directions.

Thanks to the changing flow of the Urals, many Cossack villages that were previously near the river later ended up on oxbow lakes; residents of other villages were forced to move to new places only because their old dwellings were gradually undermined and demolished by the river.

In general, the Ural valley is cut on both sides by oxbow lakes, narrow channels, wide channels, lakes, small lakes; during spring water spillage resulting from melting snow on Ural mountains ah, they are all filled with water, which is held in some next year. In the spring, rivers and streams carry a lot of melt water into the Urals, the river overflows, overflows its banks, and in the same places where the banks are sloping, the river overflows 3-7 meters. There is also a water supply from the river to the oil fields.

The largest left-bank tributaries of the Urals from the city of Orsk to the mouth of Ilek - Kiyalyburtya, Urtaburtya, Burtya, Berdyanka, Donguz, Chernaya - are typical steppe rivers with short but stormy spring floods. The last two of them - Donguz and Chernaya - practically dry up in the middle of summer due to the construction of large reservoirs on them.

The Ilek River is the largest left-bank tributary of the Urals. Below Ilek, the Ural receives three more significant tributaries on the right: Kindelyu, Irtek and Chagan. The last of them flows into the Urals outside the Orenburg region. Near the city of Orsk the Or River flows into the Urals.

In the “Gorge” the river cuts almost straight through the Ural ridge, and even lower down the 40-kilometer section of the Khabarninsky Gorge begins. In this section, the Ural receives the waters of the mountain rivers Guberli with Chebakla and Kinderli on the right, and on the left - Ebita, Aituarka and Alimbet.

Source of the Ural River

Most of the tributaries flow into it from the right side, facing the General Syrt; of these are known: Artazim, Tanalyk, Guberlya, Sakmara, Zazhivnaya, lost in the floodplain, not reaching the Urals, in the meadows between the villages of Studenovsky and Kindelinsky, Kindelya and Irtek within the Orenburg region; in the West Kazakhstan region, several shallow rivers flow below the Irtek, including Rubezhka, at the mouth of which were the first settlements of the Yaik Cossacks; the most watery tributary on the right is the river. Chagan, flowing from General Syrt.

On the left flow the rivers Or, Ilek, Utva, Barbasheva (Barbastau) and Solyanka, noticeable only in the spring and drying up in the summer. Contrary to general misconception, the Ural River is a natural water border between Asia and Europe only in its upper reaches in Russia.

The border passes through the cities of Verkhneuralsk and Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk region. In Kazakhstan, the geographical border between Europe and Asia runs south from Orsk along the Mugodzhary ridge.

Thus, the Ural River is an inland 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 carried out in April - May 2010 showed that drawing the border between 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 ridge, having lost its axis, breaks up into several parts, then the mountains gradually disappear altogether, that is, the main landmark when drawing the border disappears. The Ural and Emba rivers do not share anything, since the terrain they cross is identical. And the entire West Kazakhstan and Atyrau regions of Kazakhstan and half of the Aktobe region are part of Europe.

This factor became decisive in the admission of the Kazakhstan Football Federation to UEFA in 2002.

Natural monuments

The most beautiful geological and landscape natural monuments on the Ural River:

1. Iriklinskoe gorge.

The dam site in the Iriklinsky gorge, which is a narrowing of the Ural valley about 250 meters wide, composed of volcanic rocks - tuffs and lavas of Devonian age, was chosen back in 1932 by Leningrad hydraulic engineers. Topographically, this is the most favorable place for the construction of dams, and volcanic rocks have low permeability, which played a decisive role in the construction of the hydroelectric complex. As a result of filling the bed to the level of 245 meters, a narrow reservoir 73 kilometers long with three large bays in the southern part. The longest of them is Suunduk Bay - 43 kilometers.

2. Orsk Gate.

To the west of Orsk, having taken Or and Kumak on the left, the Urals, contrary to all laws, rushes into the mountains. His further path to the west is blocked by the stone wall of the Guberlinsky Mountains. But the Urals turns sharply to the southeast, bypassing the mountain range. Rounding the first ridge of the Guberlinsky Mountains, the river travels about 6 kilometers. Above it to the right is a hundred-meter-high cliff, to the left is a low bank overgrown with floodplain forest. The Urals here are wide and deep, the current is calm, almost imperceptible, it looks like a narrow and long Mountain Lake.

But now the deep reach ends. The sound of falling water is heard. Ahead is the Week-Say roll. Here the river bed is a pile of huge boulders and rock fragments. To the right are cliffs that drop straight into the water. The majestic bastion rock approaches on the left; it is composed of very strong rocks - amphibolites and gabbro. The valley here turns into a relatively narrow gorge, and the river flows quickly between two stone walls. Soon the gorge gives way to gentle hills, but it is still a long way to reach the plain. In search of a breakthrough to the west, the Urals again changes its direction and flows north. But his direct path is again blocked by the high mountain Ak-Bik.

At an altitude of about 120 meters, the mountain has a horizontal ledge-terrace 100-120 meters wide. This ledge is the ancient channel of the Urals. About a million years ago, the destroyed Ural Mountains began to gradually rise, and the river was forced to deepen its channel, crashing into the towering Guberlinsky Mountains. This is how the Orsk Gate was formed - the exit of the Urals to the west. Near the mouth of Guberli, the landscape becomes especially picturesque. Peaked hills and jagged cliffs run down to the river, dissected by deep, shadowy gorges. Between the ridges and rocks, streams of rocky screes, composed of fragments of rocks and boulders, slide down. This mountainous country is sawed through deep canyons the rivers Guberlya, Tonatar, Ebita and their tributaries. The bottoms of the canyons are densely overgrown with black alder, aspen, birch, and viburnum. Sometimes the dark green beards of Cossack juniper creep down from the slopes. But it’s enough to climb up, and the vast expanse of feather grass of the ancient plateau will appear before your eyes. This is the natural phenomenon of the Guberlinsky region of the Ural basin: rocky mountains below, flat steppe above. It is not difficult to find this unique landscape of the Southern Urals on the map. It is located in the north of the Aktobe region, where a small section of the Ural River serves as the border between Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation.

3. Mount Transverse.

Below the village of Khabarnogo, a narrow section of the Ural River valley begins, which is called the Khabarninsky Gorge. The narrowing begins from the mouth of the Plakunki stream, where the Utes Rest House is located. From here begins one of the most wonderful stretches in the Urals. To the right, a black-green ridge of a transverse mountain hangs over it; the ridge stretches along the coast for 4 km. The Urals here are wide and deep, the current is calm, almost imperceptible, it looks less like a river, and more like a long mountain lake. When the long reach ends, the rocks retreat from the right bank and the opposite side of the river becomes mountainous. At the turn, you can hear the sound of boiling water - the Noisy rapids are ahead. Those rafting on the river here must be extremely careful and steer the boat or raft close to the bushes on the left bank.

4. Mount Mayachnaya.

Between the Giryalsky ridge (many local historians and most travelers consider it the first Ural mountain on the way from Orenburg to Orsk) and Mount Verblyuzhka on the right bank of the Urals, another hill rises - Mount Mayachnaya. It is a round hill, cut by an extensive network of ravines and hollows with smooth outlines almost to the very top. The absolute elevation of the hill is 284.8 m, and the relative elevation above the Urals is 158 m. The foot of the riverine slope of Mount Mayachnaya is strewn with boulders with a diameter of up to 40-50 cm. At the foot of Mount Ural, an extensive riverbed Mayachnaya backwater forms, which is a valuable spawning ground for bream, carp, asp, pike perch, as well as white fish.

5. Nikolsky open-pit mine.

2 km west of the village of Nikolsk. Geological natural monument, area – 8.0 hectares. A low cliff above the Ural River and above its floodplain with a length of about 800 m. In the cliff there are layers of sandstones, clay-argillites, and clayey limestones steeply falling to the east. This section is the stratotype of the Orenburg stage of the Upper Carboniferous, which was identified by V.E. Ruzhentsev (1945). In terms of its exposure, completeness and paleontological characteristics, it is one of the best sections of coal deposits in the Southern Urals, as evidenced by numerous finds of faunal remains. The most common species found in the section are ammonites, conodonts, and fusulinids. Accumulations of fauna are often contained in loaf-shaped limestone nodules. The section contains interlayers of coarse clastic rocks, in which individual fragments reach a size of 1 m. These are conglomerate-breccias, which are also called olistostromes. It is believed that olistostromes were formed as a result of underwater landslides on seabed. The Orenburg stage completes the section of the Carboniferous system and is borderline with deposits of the Permian system. Based on collections of the fauna of the Nikolsky section, the position of the Carboniferous-Permian boundary is largely substantiated. In the summer of 1991, the section was examined by domestic and foreign geologists at the international congress on the Permian system.

6. The White Stone tract in the floodplain of the Ural River. On the left bank of the Ural River, northeast of the village of Yangelsky. Geological natural monument. On the steep slopes of the Ural River, the White Stone cliffs are exposed, stretching for 150-200 meters. Rocky outcrops of organogenic limestone contain remains of fossil organisms, as well as natural communities, including rare and protected species of lichens, plants and animals.

7. Mount Izvoz. 3 km from Verkhneuralsk, on the right bank of the Ural River. A botanical natural monument, including man-made pine plantings, picturesque rocky outcrops on the top of the mountain, as well as artificial park structures.

8. Kyzlar-Tau (Maiden Mountain). River break Ural near the village Chesnokovka.

Rafting on the Ural River

In some places along the banks of the Urals you can find rocks.

The Ural River after Orsk is especially beautiful. Here the river flows into a gorge through the Guberlinsky Mountains, the length of this section is approximately 45 kilometers. There is excellent fishing, a healthy climate, and air rich in steppe grasses. In some places in the Urals you can even find rocks.

Due to the fact that the river often changes its winding bed, many oxbow lakes have formed in the Ural valley. Some of the oxbow lakes are rich in fish. It happened more than once that settlements, founded on the bank of the river, over time they found themselves far away from it - the river “went” to the side. The banks are predominantly steep and clayey.

The largest tributary of the Urals, the Sakmara River, is also interesting for tourist rafting.

The government of the Orenburg region pins its hopes on the development of water tourism on the Ural River. In particular, a water route for kayaks with a total length of 876 kilometers has been developed (from Iriklinsky to Orenburg - 523 km, from Orenburg to Ranny - 352 km). Rafting along this route is designed for 28 days. However, it is not necessary to go rafting; you can simply come to the banks of the Ural River on weekends, relax after hard everyday life and go fishing.

ATTRACTIONS OF THE URAL RIVER

Alabaster Mountain

The next mountain on the left bank of the Urals is Alabasterovaya, located 75 km by land and 147 km by water above Uralsk. The mountain is half eaten by a quarry - here for a long time alabaster was mined. To the east of the former quarry stretches a high slope with marly screes. Its middle part is overgrown with powerful oaks for these places, as well as birch, aspen, poplars with bird cherry, viburnum, and goat willow in the undergrowth.

Three kilometers below the Alabaster Mountain, the Ural is washed by the not so high Dolinsky Yar, composed of sandstones, flagstones, and conglomerates. Not many oak and birch trees climb its slopes. We sail through the Urals for another 30 km and on the left bank near Aula-Aksai we again notice chalk outcrops. But the chalk and marly slopes reach their greatest heights somewhat lower, on the Kitayshinsky Yar. Below the mouth of the Rubezhka River and the village of Rubezhinskoye, where the navigable section of the Urals begins, another hill appears on the left bank. The river washes her away twice. The first time is right behind the rapid reach of the Uporny Yar, where the Urals, hitting a high steep marly scree, makes a turn of almost 180°. Here the river reaches the fastest rapid below Orenburg, Saurkin, and breaks into two channels. After 5 km on the path of the Urals there is a second high marly cliff - Polousov Yar. Both ravine cliffs - Saurkin and Polousov - rise above the river by more than 50 m. Their slopes are complicated by giant landslides. In a kind of amphitheater between them lies the natural phenomenon of the Ural valley - the Krasnoshkolny relict forest. One of the slopes of this huge amphitheater is overgrown with a magnificent oak forest, under the cover of which there are hazel, or hazel, and a forest apple tree. The oak forest herbage consists of bracken fern and lily of the valley, May celandine.

Treasure Coast

This tract, inconspicuous at first glance, on the banks of the Urals deserves the most careful treatment. Folk wisdom No wonder she called it the Coast of Treasures - this is one of the most remarkable places on the entire right-bank slope of the Ural valley from Orenburg to Ilek. If up to the mouth of the Ilek the steep bank near the Urals is on the right, then below the Ilek the left bank, which entirely belongs to the Ural region, is much more often steep. In the Ilek-Uralsk section, the river washes away at least six hills, which have salt domes in their core, and on the surface there is chalk, marl, white clay, ferruginous sandstones and flagstones. These. the hills form a single chain of small mountains stretched along the joint strip of General Syrt and Caspian lowland. The Ural manages to break through this chain and rush south only south of Uralsk, leaving the seventh dome from Ilek - Chalk Hills on the right.

The first on the path of the Urals is the Utvinsky chalk island. It is located slightly above the mouth of the Utva River, 6-10 km northeast of the village of Burlin in the Ural region. During the spring flood, Utvinsky Island is surrounded by water on all sides, from the north by the Urals, from the west and southwest by Utva, from the south and east by Lake Bumakol and the chalk channels connecting it with the Urals. Only by mid-June is a land road to this unusual island usually established.

At the foot of the ancient ravines

Precipitous banks in the Urals are called ravines, and the high ones with outcrops of bedrock are known among local residents under the names such-and-such mountain, such-and-such forehead, shore. These are usually steep slopes of the river valley, remarkable in landscape geological terms, having the significance of unique natural monuments. One of them is located on the right bank of the Urals between the villages of Pervaya and Vtoraya Zubochistka, Perevolotsky district, Orenburg region.

The steep and high coast of the Urals here is complicated by several cirque-shaped landslides, which were formed as a result of downslope displacements of sections of blocks of sandy-clayey sediments associated with activities groundwater. But there is something else that is interesting here. In this section, the Ural lobe is crossed by a depressed section of the earth's crust about 1 km wide. On both sides there is a decrease in the limitation of layers of Permian red-colored and variegated rocks inclined in different directions. IN mountainous countries such phenomena are called grabens; as a result, they end up on the same horizon rocks of different ages and composition. This kind of graben was formed not in the mountains, but on the plains - in a depression, the sides of which are composed of dense Permian and Triassic rocks formed more than 200 million years ago. Here, gray and white clays, mergues, and sandstones of the Cretaceous and Paleogene periods have been preserved from erosion. Their age ranges from 50 to 130 million years.

The geological structure of the Ural coast is complicated by landslide processes in this area. As a result, the coastal slopes are replaced by variegated sandy clays of various shades, marls, calcareous tuffs, and ocher screes. It seems that nature has collected all the colorful gamuts of yellow, gray-green, brown, and red into this unique collection of sedimentary rocks.

Lakes of the Ural floodplain

There are many wonderful landscape features near the lakes of the Ural floodplain. For example, the habitat of the most ancient and amazing relic that has survived to this day, the chilim, has been preserved here. Its continuous thickets, covering the watery surface with rosettes of leaves, have been preserved on the lakes of the Ural floodplain below Orenburg: Bespelyukhin, Orekhovoy, Bolshoi Orlovo. Old Ural, Lipov, Oreshki, Dzhilimny, Forpostno and many others. Several names have been assigned to this plant: chilim, rogulnik, and among the people it is also known as water or devil’s nut, horned nut, live anchor, water chestnut. Fossilized remains of chilim fruits were found in Cretaceous deposits. This means that it has inhabited the fresh water bodies of the Earth for more than 70 million years. But at present, chilim thickets have been preserved in a few places.

It is noteworthy that, having formed continuous thickets on one of the lakes, it no longer settles on neighboring lakes, but sometimes even tens or hundreds of kilometers around. The above indicates the relict nature of chilim, preserved only under certain environmental conditions.

In recent years, Chilim lakes have been taken under protection in Mordovia, Bashkiria, the Altai Mountains, Far East and in many other areas of our country. Chilim is listed in the Red Book.

We find a description of this mountain from P. S. Pallas, who visited here in 1769. He wrote: “Beyond the Or River a mountain range begins, in which the best types of jasper stone are visible. The layers in this mountain, just like in the jasper mountains lying near Yaik, mostly descend into the depths from the western to the eastern side. The local flask has a lot different colors. The best jasper, especially in large spread, has a color that is either coffee or white with red and yellowish stripes. There are also pieces depicting grass and trees. There are Kyrgyz graves on every hill. Nowhere can one find the best pieces of local jasper as on these graves, and it seems that the action of the sun produced a much better color on the outside than on the inside of the stone.”

In the vicinity of Orsk there were already several quarries at that time. Academician A.E. Fersman, describing minerals Soviet Union in the book “Journey for a Stone”, on the title of the book he placed six pieces of stone, specifically Orsk jasper, to which the scientist devoted many enthusiastic lines: “It is difficult to give an exhaustive description of this jasper - its design and color are so diverse, we know over two hundred varieties of jasper in this area, and the best designs and colors refer specifically to the jasper from this deposit... It seems to me that we are in a wonderful art gallery. Not every artist will be able to convey such combinations of tones and colors that nature itself has scattered here with a generous hand. It’s like a stormy sea: its greenish waves shimmer with the reddish glow of dawn, here is the white edge of foam, and here are the rocky shores...” and further: “... Orsky jaspers are undoubtedly the national wealth of the country.” In addition to Mount Colonel, along the Urals there are a number of other places where jasper is born. Many of them are not yet widely known; they contain the future glory of the Trans-Ural jasper belt.

According to one version (thanks to Furmanov’s book and especially the film “Chapaev”), it was in the waves of the Urals that Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev died. However, some historians doubt this and insist that Chapaev died in battle and was buried somewhere on the river bank.

V. Pelevin in the novel “Chapaev and Emptiness” metamorphoses the Urals (in which he drowned historical Vasily Chapaev) in “The Conditional River of Absolute Love”.

- “Ural-batyr” (Bashk. Ural batyr) - Bashkir epic (kubair).

There are many lakes, oxbow lakes, and rivers in the Ural floodplain. And all around there are forests, impassable, overgrown with blackberries, thorny thorns, the berries of which are still called Cossack grapes here, and a hike along this river will be simply unforgettable. There are also mushrooms: boletus, boletus, milk mushrooms. The Urals are beautiful and swift. The steep yars are interspersed with sands, the rifts are interspersed with wide and deep reaches with heaps of cramps, waterways, and backwaters, sometimes extending far into the steppe.

Up to thirty species of fish are found in the river: sturgeon, stellate sturgeon, zander, herring, bream, carp, catfish, pike, chub, crucian carp, beluga, whitefish, carp, roach, roach, kutum, dace, ide, rudd, asp, tench, Podust, gudgeon, barbel, bleak, bluegill, char, burbot, perch, ruff, goby. Local residents don’t even consider pike to be fish. A trifle, if they catch it, it’s in the fall, for drying, when the flies disappear, yes in early spring- then every love, because the first. Fishing here has its own specifics.

Fishing on the Ural River will bring a lot of joy. In past centuries and until recently, the Ural River was famous for sturgeon. According to some data, at the end of the 1970s, the Ural River's share in world sturgeon production was 33 percent, and in black caviar production - 40 percent.

In 1981 -1983 The conditions and efficiency of sturgeon spawning above the city of Uralsk were studied by the Orenburg Laboratory of Landscape Reclamation and Nature Conservation. Observations have shown that almost all non-silted areas of the river bottom with hard soil in the spring serve as spawning grounds for sturgeon. It was found that spawning is most effective in large fields of riverbed and beach Mechnik, crushed stone and cemented shell rock, where the flow speed during high water reaches 2 m/s, preventing siltation of the soil and deposited eggs. On a 315-kilometer stretch of the river from Uralsk to Ilek, the expedition studied several types of spawning grounds. The most common of them were riverine beaches. They are formed, as is known, along convex shores, where thick layers of coarse material accumulate.

The excess of the beaches above the low-water level of the river reaches 4 m, the width is 40-120 m. The length of the Ural beaches, depending on the radius of the bend, ranges from 200-300 m to 2 km. The longest beaches on the Ilek-Uralsk section are Kambavskie Sands (below the village of Yanvartseva) and Trekinskie Sands (above the city of Uralsk). The most valuable in terms of quality are the Verkhnekirsanovsky and Aksuatsky beaches with a dense pebble surface, located respectively 179 and 36 kilometers above Uralsk. But now sturgeon in the Urals have become rare.


Belorybitsa in the Urals

Whitefish is a representative of salmon fish, very close to whitefish. It reaches 120 cm in length and 20 kg in weight. In its appearance it somewhat resembles the well-known asp. The white fish is a predator, but in the Urals it hardly feeds. The white fish enters the river to spawn no more than twice in its life. She lives until she is 11 years old. The closest relative of the white fish - nelma - lives in the Northern basin Arctic Ocean. It is from there, according to scientists, that she ends up ice age along chains of lakes it moved across the Kama and Volga to the Caspian Sea and, having changed somewhat, became a white fish. White fish is a valuable commercial fish, but now its fishing is prohibited everywhere.

Through the efforts of scientists and fish farmers, it was possible to maintain its numbers artificially. At the foot of the Volgograd hydroelectric power station dam on the Volga, gravel spawning grounds have been built for white fish. The only natural spawning grounds for this fish are in the Urals.

One of the little-known inhabitants of the Urals and its tributaries is the lamprey. It belongs to the oldest class of cyclostome fish. It has a snake-like body, about 0.5 m long, weighing up to 260 g. The lamprey has a number of features that are not characteristic of other fish species. Her mouth is a deep funnel-suction cup; at the bottom there is a tongue, which, like a piston, either extends or retracts. The tongue serves as a drill to penetrate the fish's skin. The lamprey has a third eye, the parietal one, located near the nasal opening. There is no lens in it; with its help, lampreys perceive only light. They inherited this organ from their ancestors, which were widespread in the Silurian and Devonian periods, that is, more than 400 million years ago. Thus, the lamprey can be considered a kind of “living fossil”.

Sevruga in the Urals

The most numerous sturgeon of the Urals is the stellate sturgeon. The Ural-Caspian fisheries produce up to 70% of the world's stellate sturgeon catches. The main spawning grounds for stellate sturgeon are located in the lower reaches of the river. Not a large number of Stellate sturgeon rises above Uralsk, reaching Ilek and even Rassypnaya. Stellate sturgeon is represented mainly by the spring form. It spawns later than other sturgeons at water temperatures above 12-14° C. Average length Ural stellate sturgeon is about 120-140 cm, weight is about 10-15 kg.

The only resident species of sturgeon in Uralsk is the sterlet. It is found throughout the lower and middle reaches of the river - very rarely everywhere. The usual dimensions of the Ural sterlet are: length about 60 cm, weight 2.5 kg.

Migratory fish in the Urals

It takes a lot of time to restore strength and develop a new portion of reproductive products for re-entering the river to spawn: females - 5-6 years, males - 3-4 years. Therefore, despite longer duration life (up to 30 years or more), each breeder can enter the river only a few times in its life. Every year, huge hordes of migratory fish flock to the Urals. Their advanced detachments reach Ilek, Orenburg and even Orsk.

Ichthyological observations 1981 - 1983 It has been established that the largest sturgeon specimens rise to the middle of the river reach. This means that the middle reaches of the Urals are of decisive importance for the conservation of large-sized sturgeon specimens.

The most big fish Caspian basin - beluga. In the 20s of our century, fish weighing up to 12 c were caught in the Urals. In former times, larger specimens were also caught. The usual weight of belugas spawning above Uralsk is 150-300 kg for females and 50-90 kg for males. To this day, beluga whales weighing 600 kg or more are still found.

Sturgeon reached their greatest numbers in the Caspian Sea basin, where 5 out of 23 species are represented sturgeon fish of the world are beluga, sturgeon, thorn and stellate sturgeon, which have mastered the food resources of the sea, where they spend most of their lives, Sterlet, which is a marine species, that is, it never leaves the river. Beluga, sturgeon, thorn and stellate sturgeon of the Caspian Sea are migratory fish. They regularly migrate from the Caspian Sea to rivers to breed. Migratory fish are divided into winter and spring races.

Winter fish enter the river in summer and autumn, and after overwintering, they spawn.

Spring fish enter the river in winter and spring and spawn in the same year. Migratory fish in the river, as a rule, do not feed or feed very little. Overcoming the river current during spawning migrations, a long stay in the river and the spawning process itself lead to severe depletion of the producers. It has been established that stellate sturgeon and sturgeon lose up to 30% of their weight during spawning migration, and beluga - up to 50% of their weight. And, as a rule, the greater the energy reserves of a particular individual, the larger it is, the higher along the river it can and tends to rise.

URAL RIVER IN ORENBURG REGION

The largest river in the Orenburg region is the Ural (in ancient times Yaik), the main part of its flow is formed in the Orenburg region. Two other large rivers - Sakmara and Ilek - originate in Bashkiria and Kazakhstan, respectively, but flow into the Urals within the Orenburg region. The Urals are the main water artery Orenburg region.

The Ural River crosses the Orenburg region from east to west, flowing through 10 districts of the region for 1164 km. Main feature The river is uneven flow. During the spring flood, the Ural turns into a huge watercourse, filling the entire floodplain 6–8 km wide. The first two large Orenburg tributaries of the Urals, Tanalyk and Suunduk, currently flow into the Iriklinskoye reservoir, forming bays of the same name.

The Tanalyk River, 225 km long, originates in the spurs of the Urals, then crosses Irendyk. The average water flow in Tanalyk does not exceed 1.0 m3/s.

In the area of ​​the city of Orsk, two more significant tributaries, the Bolshoi Kumak and the Or, flow into the Urals from the left. Throughout the entire length from the Iriklinsky reservoir to the mouth of the Sakmara, the Ural receives only one significant tributary from the right - the Guberlya. The largest left-bank tributaries of the Urals from the city of Orsk to the mouth of Ilek - Kiyalyburtya, Urtaburtya, Burtya, Berdyanka, Donguz, Chernaya - are typical steppe rivers with short but stormy spring floods. The last two of them - Donguz and Chernaya - practically dry up in the middle of summer due to the construction of large reservoirs on them.

The Ilek River is the largest left-bank tributary of the Urals (623 km). Its sources are located in the Mutojar Mountains. In terms of drainage area (41 thousand km2), Ilek is one third larger than Sakmara, but carries 2.5 times less water than the most abundant tributary of the Urals (the annual flow rate is 1569 m3). The Ilek River has a wide, well-developed valley with two terraces above the floodplain. The size of the Ilek valley is sometimes not inferior to the Ural valley. The Ilek floodplain is replete with numerous channels and oxbow lakes.

Below Ilek, the Ural receives three more significant tributaries on the right: Kindelyu, Irtek and Chagan. The last of them flows into the Urals outside the Orenburg region. Near the city of Orsk the Or River flows into the Urals. In the “Gorge” the river cuts almost straight through the Ural ridge, and even lower down the 40-kilometer section of the Khabarninsky Gorge begins. In this section, the Ural receives the waters of the mountain rivers Guberli with Chebakla and Kinderli on the right, and on the left - Ebita, Aituarka and Alimbet.

On the map, the Ural basin resembles a tree bent in one direction with a thick trunk in the middle and very short branches. Only the right tributary, the Sakmara River, flowing for a long distance parallel to the Urals, has a relatively dense branched network of tributaries.

The Ural River is not navigable, its width is 50-170 m, its depth is 3-5 m, the flow speed is 0.3 m/s, the bottom is sandy, there are no fords. The banks are predominantly steep, the height of the cliffs is 5-9 m. The Ural floodplain is wide - 10-12 km, meadow, with significant forests, a large number kolkov, sparse bushes, cut by numerous rivers, oxbow lakes and channels, many lakes.

In ancient sources the names of the Ural River are found - Likos, Daiks, Daikh, Dzhaikh, as well as Ruza, Yaik, Yagak, Yagat, Ulusu, Zapolnaya River. The name of the river Yaik and its consonant names Daiks, Daikh, Yagak, etc. have been found for about two thousand years.

Now it is difficult to say what the word “Daix” meant in the time of Ptolemy, when the Iranian-speaking Sarmatian tribes were still roaming the Urals basin. The Russian form “Yaik” is first found in the Russian chronicle of 1229. It is considered to be a derivative of the common Turkic base “Zhaik” with the meaning “wide river bed” or “spreading widely.”

The Sakmara River is the largest tributary of the Urals. The length of Sakmara within the Orenburg region is about 380 km. In the upper reaches of Sakmara - this is a typical mountain river with steep banks and narrow terraces, in the middle and lower - its valley is wide, asymmetrical with well-defined two terraces and a populated floodplain.

The Ural is a river in the Caspian Sea basin. It flows through the lands of the Republic of Bashkortostan, Chelyabinsk and Orenburg regions, as well as the Republic of Kazakhstan. Find out where the river flows here.

The length of the river reaches 2.42 km (this is the third longest in Europe after the Volga and Danube). First, the Urals flows from the Bashkir territories to the south. Here the river can be called a mountain one - the flows in the upper reaches are so strong. Then the waters flow into the Yaitsky swamp, from where the Urals emerge wide. In some places the width of the river reaches 5 km.

Crossing Verkhneuralsk, the Ural turns into a typical lowland river, giving way to relief in the Guberlinsky Mountains. Near the city of Uralsk, where the river enters into full possession of the Kazakh steppes, its valley exceeds tens of kilometers. At the mouth, the river divides into two branches - Yaitsky and Zolotoy, on which navigation is organized. Visit the attractions.

Excursion into the history of the Urals

The old name of the hydrogeological object is Yaik. The origin of the hydronym goes back to the ancient Iranian language. The river was designated by Ptolemaic geographers in the 2nd century AD under the name Daiks. The mighty Ural river received its modern name thanks to the decision of Catherine the Great. Pushkin in his history of Pugacheva said that Yaik, according to the decree of Empress Catherine II, was renamed the Urals, since it comes out of the mountains with the corresponding name. The outstanding Russian poet and writer also mentioned that the Ural is the third longest river in the Old World, second only to the Danube and Volga.

The ancient hydronym Rhymnusfluvius is found in ancient European maps. In the chronicles of the Russian principalities, the river was first mentioned in the mid-12th century. Then Prince Mstislav managed to drive the Polovtsians beyond the Volga, Don and Yaik.

Empress Catherine the Great ordered the name to be changed to Ural. In 1775, the Tsarina suppressed large-scale peasant unrest under the leadership of Pugachev. What prompted this decision remains a mystery. However, historians are confident that Catherine II decided to eradicate the story of Pugachev, the Bashkirs and the Yaik Cossacks, who took direct part in the uprising. In the Kazakh and Bashkir languages, the name of the river did not change, but this in no way could influence the popularization of the new hydronym.

The Urals separating two continents

Contrary to popular belief, the upper Ural River represents a natural water boundary between the Asian and European continents. The symbolic border passes in the cities of Magnitogorsk and Verkhneuralsk in the Chelyabinsk region.

In the Republic of Kazakhstan, from a geographical point of view, the border between the continents runs from the city of Orsk south to the Mugodzhary mountain range. Thus, we can say with confidence that the Ural is a European river, and only the upper reaches of the eastern ranges of the Ural Mountains in Russia can be considered Asia.

At the beginning of 2010, experts from the Russian Geographical Society conducted a large-scale Scientific research rivers in Kazakhstan. It demonstrated that the symbolic drawing of the border line between the two continents along the bed of the Ural River, as well as along the Emba, is by no means considered the right decision. The whole point is that the Ural ridge south of the city of Zlatoust loses its axis and breaks up into a number of insignificant parts. Further, the mountain range disappears altogether, as a result of which the main landmark by which the notorious border between Asia and Europe is determined disappears. The scientists' conclusion is that the Ural and Emba rivers cannot symbolically share anything, since the terrain through which they flow is identical.

Natural monuments on the banks of the Urals

The nature on the banks of the Urals is as diverse as the river itself. On the left bank, near the village of Yangelsky in Bashkortostan, you can enjoy amazingly beautiful landscapes. Best place for picnics, fishing and camping in these places it is difficult to find. The steep slopes expose the rocky White Stone cliffs, which stretch for 200 meters.

Curious tourists can discover ancient remains of fossil organisms in limestone rocky outcrops. For lovers rare plants there will also be something to do. In this part of the Urals they grow rare species lichens and plants included in the Red Book. This equally applies to the rich animal world.

3 km on the right bank of the Ural River there is a mountain with interesting name Delivery The picturesque area with numerous trails for tourists is included in the state nature conservation program. The botanical monument contains: relict plantings, pine forests, rocky outcrops to the top.

Not far from the village of Chesnokovka lies a unique natural object- Kyzlar-Tau (from the Tatars. Maiden Mountain). The peculiarity of this area is considered to be the water-eroded layers of red sandstones; hundreds of tourists come to see them. It is believed that girls ran here for round dances and were spied on by daredevil horsemen.

Entertainment on the Ural River

Travelers actively use the mountainous sections of the Ural River for boating. Along the riverbed there are tourist sports centers, from which exciting water excursions along the indomitable streams of the Urals start. In some places you can find rugged rocks carved thousands of years ago. The Ural region below Orsk is rightfully considered the most beautiful part of the trip. Flowing through the gorge through the Guberlinsky Mountains, the river looks fabulous. The surrealism of the picture is reinforced by the absence of tourists.

Worthy of attention: Orskie Gate, Nikolsky section, Iriklinskoe gorge, Mayachnaya and Poperechnaya mountains.

The obstinate river in the upper reaches often changed its course, which is why in Bashkortostan and the Chelyabinsk region you can find ancient remains of abandoned fishing settlements at a comparative distance from the river.

The largest rivers of the Urals

Lozva, Sosva, Pechora, Shchugor, Ilych, Vishera, Uls, Vels, Yayva, Tura, Tavda, Tagil, Chusovaya, Belaya, Yuryuzan, Zilim, Shchuchya, Ay, Miass, Ural, Inzer, Ufa, Pelym, Usva, Sylva, Kosyu, Kozhim, Kara. In the Urals there are a large number of rivers suitable for rafting - navigable rivers. The most popular routes along the Ural rivers:

Chusovaya River and its tributaries

There are many places to start rafting on Chusovaya, the most popular places are: Boytsy, Kourovka, Chusovoe, Martyanova. Rafters also like to follow Ermak’s route along the Serebryanka River, which flows into Chusovaya, and along the Mezhevaya Utka River. Rafting usually ends in Ust-Utka, Kynu, Verkhnyaya Oslyanka or in the city of Chusovoy. The river is replete with rocky banks that attract tourists. In the village of Kharenki there are dachas of many famous people Sverdlovsk region, for example, the former governor of the Sverdlovsk region E. Rossel.

Belaya River (Agidel)

It flows exclusively through the territory of the Republic of Bashkortostan, through Beloretsk, Sermenevo, Kaga, Meleuz, Salavat, Ishimbay, Sterlitamak, Tolbazy, Bulgakovo, Ufa, Blagoveshchensk, Birsk, Dyurtyuli. It flows into the Kama, into the Nizhne-Kama Reservoir. The length of the river is 1420 km. In the upper reaches, the Agidel is a mountain river; after it flows into Ufa in the area of ​​the city of the same name, it becomes a typically flat river suitable for navigation. A popular route for rafting and combined hiking trips with visits to caves, including the most famous Shulgan-Tash (Kapova Cave).

Pechora River

Located in the Komi Republic and Nenets Autonomous Okrug. Length - 1809 km. The word "pechora" means "cave". In literary Russian, cave is a Church Slavonic word; in dialects the word pechora is known. It originates in the Northern Urals, in the southeastern part of the Komi Republic, and flows primarily to the southwest. The river is popular with fishermen and rafting tourists; in the lower and middle reaches it is navigable for large ships.

Vishera River

One of the most picturesque rivers The Urals originate on the territory of the Vishera Nature Reserve, in the west. Its length is 415 km. In the upper reaches there is a river with a fast current and a large number of riffles, flowing surrounded by mountain ranges. The middle part of the Vishera, from Uls to Kolva, is wider (up to 150 meters), but still a mountain river. The lower part of the Vishera, from the place where the Kolva flows into it and to the Kama, is flat, calm and wide river, spreading up to 900 meters in places. The Vishera and its tributaries are inhabited by grayling, burbot, char, spikefish, and taimen.

Pyshma River

The length of the river is 603 km. In Mansi "Pyshma" means "quiet". The main attraction along the banks of Pyshma are the rocks. For example, in the area of ​​the Kurya resort, the Three Sisters rock with the stone rotunda “Temple of Air” on top is considered not only a symbol of the sanatorium, but also the geographical border of the Urals and Siberia. In the river valley, on the territory of the Tugulym and Talitsky districts of the Sverdlovsk region, is located national park"Pripyshminskie Bors". Near the village of Shata there is a small waterfall, the Gendarme rock. Near the village of Znamensky on the left bank of the Pyshma lies the huge rock Diviy Kamen, a natural monument of regional significance. Nowadays, on the right bank, opposite the rock, every year on the first Sunday of August, a popular student song rally “Znamenka” is held. In the upper reaches of the Pyshma in 1745, the Shartash peasant Erofey Markov discovered the first ore gold in Russia, and in 1814 Lev Brusnitsyn mastered the mining of alluvial gold for the first time in Russia.

Yuryuzan River

The total length of the Yuryuzan River is 285 kilometers. Standing on the river big cities Chelyabinsk region: Yuryuzan, Trekhgorny, Ust-Katav. There are no large settlements in the river area on the territory of Bashkiria. On the river, in the Salavat region of Bashkortostan, there is the Yangan-Tau resort, which is famous for its spring mineral water"Kurgazak."

Lozva River

It originates on the eastern slope of the Poyasovy Kamen ridge in the Northern Urals. Flows southeast among swamps West Siberian Plain. The river has a typically mountainous character with rifts alternating with reaches and pits. The diet is mixed, with a predominance of snow. Average consumption water 187 km from the mouth - about 70 m/sec. It freezes in October - early November, opens in late April - early May. Rafting usually starts from the villages of Burmantovo and Khorpiya, but you can go from Auspiya itself. Combined alloys are also in demand: Vizhay-Lozva, Sev.Toshemka-Lozva.

Sosva River

The length of the river is 635 km. In the upper reaches there is the Denezhkin Stone Nature Reserve. Navigable for 333 km from the mouth for large ships, for tourists it is passable from the upper reaches. Rich in fish typical of the Ural region, both carp species and trophy taimen and grayling. It freezes in early November and opens in April. Flows into Tavda.

Ai River

The route passes through the Chelyabinsk region and Bashkiria. Ai, a left tributary of the Ufa, originates in a mountain saddle between the Ural ridges Avalyam and Urenga, at an altitude of about 1000 m above sea level. The length of the river is 549 km, the flow speed above Zlatoust is 12-15 km/h, in the lower reaches - 5-6 km/h. The route starts from the Kusinsky Zavod station on the Bakal-Chusovskaya railway line, located at the confluence of the Kusa River with the Ai.

Sylva River

Length - 493 km. It originates on the western slope of the Middle Urals and flows mainly to the west. It flows into the Chusovsky Bay of the Kama Reservoir. It freezes in late October - early November, is characterized by frostbites, and opens in the second half of April. The beginning of the route is the village of Shalya, the end is the village. Merchant. The river opens first of all other rivers Perm region. When rafting along the Sylva, you have the opportunity to visit the legendary Kungur Ice Cave, as well as the ancient Suksun.

Vizhay River

(there is one of the same name in the Sverdlovsk region and in the Perm region)

The Vizhay River originates on the slopes of the Vizhaysky Stone mountain, in the Gornozavodsky district of the Perm Territory. The Vizhay River is a tributary of the Vilva River. The length of the river is 125 km, with an average slope of 2.2 meters per 1 km. The catchment area is 1080 sq. kilometers. In the Komi-Permyak language the word Vizhay means the following: “vezha” - saint, “ai” - father. Rafting on the Vizhay usually begins in the village of Sarany, Gornozavodsky district, Perm Territory, the end point of the route is the bridge over the Vilva River. Distance - 110 km. The main attractions that you can see while rafting along the Vizhay River include: Climber Rock, Pashiyskaya Clamp, Pashiyskaya Cave.

River Völs (Vels)

The large left tributary of the Vishera is located on. The source of Vels lies on the territory of the Vishera Nature Reserve, on the eastern slope of Mount Isherim. The Vels River is 113 kilometers long, the river is quite wide, in some places up to 100 meters. The current of the Wels is fast, but the river is shallow and has a lot of riffles. In some places it seems that the entire river is a continuous riffle. There are many islands on Vels, but such beautiful rocks as the Vishera River and the Berezovaya River are famous for are not on Vels. Rafting along the Vels is possible from the mouth of the Bolshaya Martaika River. The current here is fast, the character of the river is mountainous. Long time opens up very beautiful view to the Martai ridge. The riverbed of the Vels is winding, the banks are low. The next tributary of the Vels is the Posmak River, which also flows into the Vels from the left. After the confluence of the Posmak, the Vels River abounds with large boulders, along the banks of the river there are beautiful small rocks. 21 kilometers after the confluence of the Posmak, another large left tributary flows into Vels - the Chural (Churol) River. In this place, on the opposite (right) bank of the Vels, there is a hut.

Ilych River

A river in the Komi Republic, a right tributary of the Pechora River. It originates in the western spurs of the Northern Urals from a swamp at the foot of the Timaiz ridge. Length - 411 km. Powered by snow and rain. The banks are low and the riverbed is winding. Ilych connects with Pechora near the village of Ust-Ilych. Along the left side of the river is the Pechora-Ilychsky Nature Reserve.

Kara River

The river is formed on the northwestern slopes of the Polar Urals at the confluence of the Bolshaya Kara and Malaya Kara rivers. It flows mainly in the northwestern direction along the Pai-Khoi ridge, being the border between the Nenets and Yamalo-Nenets autonomous okrugs. It flows through several canyons, forming rapids and waterfalls. The largest is the Buredan waterfall, located 9 km below the confluence with the Nerusoveyahi River. Flows into the Kara Sea. To the west of the river is the Kara meteorite crater with a diameter of 65 km. The length of the river is 257 km.

flows through the territory of Bashkortostan, Chelyabinsk and Orenburg regions, as well as through the territory of another country - through the Republic of Kazakhstan up to the Caspian Sea.

The Ural River is the third longest river in Europe (second only to the Volga and Danube). The length of the Ural River is 2428 kilometers, most of the way the river flows through the territory of the Orenburg region (1164 km).

The source is on the slopes of the Kruglaya Sopka peak (Uraltau ridge) in the Uchalinsky district of Bashkortostan. In the upper reaches it is a rapid mountain river, it flows into the huge Yaitsky swamp, accumulates strength in it and emerges as a flat river. The mouth is in the Caspian Sea. The conventional border between Europe and Asia runs along this section of the river.

The ancient name of the river, Yaik, comes from a Turkic word meaning “overflowing, flooding.” Indeed, the river floods during spring flood, and also often changes its course, “walking” across the steppe. The first written mention was in the 2nd century AD on Ptolemy’s map (called Daix), while in Russian chronicles the first mention of Yaik was in 1140.

This river is one of the few (or maybe the only one in our country?) that changed its name in modern history for the sake of politics. The river was renamed the Ural (after the Ural Mountains) in 1775 by decree of Catherine II while eliminating the consequences of the Peasant War led by Emelyan Pugachev. This war began on Yaik, and the Bashkirs and Yaik Cossacks took an active part in it. In order to erase all reminders of the uprising, the queen ordered the name of this river and Pugachev’s native village to be consigned to oblivion. At the same time, the name of the Yaik river in Bashkir and Kazakh language still preserved.

During the bloody years Civil War It is believed that the legendary Vasily Chapaev drowned in the Urals.

Several reservoirs have been built on the Ural River. The largest and most beautiful among them is Iriklinskoye.

Until recently, the Ural River was navigable all the way to the city of Orenburg. In Soviet times, there was regular water transport between Orenburg and Uralsk. However, due to changing natural conditions(plowing of the steppes, destruction of forests) the river has become very shallow and this process continues. Issues of saving the river are discussed annually, and environmental expeditions are conducted. But while the Urals continue to shallow...

Natural monuments

1. The White Stone tract in the floodplain of the Ural River. On the left bank of the Ural River, northeast of the village of Yangelsky. Geological natural monument. On the steep slopes of the Ural River, the White Stone cliffs are exposed, stretching for 150-200 meters. Rocky outcrops of organogenic limestone contain remains of fossil organisms, as well as natural communities, including rare and protected species of lichens, plants and animals.

2. Mount Izvoz. 3 km from Verkhneuralsk, on the right bank of the Ural River. A botanical natural monument, including man-made pine plantings, picturesque rocky outcrops on the top of the mountain, as well as artificial park structures.

3. Kyzlar-Tau (Maiden Mountain). River break Ural near the village Chesnokovka

Ural River in Orenburg. Photo - alexandr-orb

Rafting on the Ural River

The Ural (Yaik) River is suitable for tourist rafting. Of course, in beauty it cannot compete with most Ural mountain rivers, but here you can have a good rest and admire the beautiful scenery. This river is especially interesting for rafting for water tourists in the Orenburg region.

There is excellent fishing, a healthy climate, and air rich in steppe grasses.

In some places in the Urals you can even find rocks. The most beautiful section of the Ural River is below Orsk, where it flows into a gorge through the Guberlinsky Mountains. The length of this section is about 45 kilometers.

The most beautiful geological and landscape natural monuments on the Ural River: the Iriklinskoe gorge, the Orskie Gate, the Poperechnaya and Mayachnaya mountains, the Nikolsky section and others.

Due to the fact that the river often changes its winding bed, many oxbow lakes have formed in the Ural valley. Some of the oxbow lakes are rich in fish. It happened more than once that settlements founded on the banks of the river eventually found themselves far away from it - the river “went away” to the side.

The banks are predominantly steep and clayey.

The largest tributary of the Urals, the Sakmara River, is also interesting for tourist rafting.

Fishing on the Ural River

Fishing on the Ural River will bring a lot of joy. In past centuries and until recently, the Ural River was famous for sturgeon. According to some data, at the end of the 1970s, the Ural River's share in world sturgeon production was 33 percent, and in black caviar production - 40 percent. But now sturgeon in the Urals have become rare. However, the fishing here is good.

There are a lot of fish in the Ural River: sturgeon, stellate sturgeon, pike perch, herring, bream, carp, catfish, pike, chub, crucian carp, beluga, white fish, carp, bream, pike perch, roach, pike, roach, kutum, dace, ide, rudd, asp, tench, podust, gudgeon, barbel, bleak, bluefish, crucian carp, char, burbot, perch, ruff, goby. In general, you are unlikely to be left without a catch!

The Ural River is one of the six largest in Russia in terms of the area of ​​its basin, which is 237 thousand km2. Third place among European rivers, occupies a length of 2428 km. The river originates in Southern Urals, in the mountains, on the Uraltau ridge. This point rises 637 meters above sea level. This determines the nature of the mountainous and stormy currents of the Urals in the upper reaches. It flows through the territory of Bashkortostan, crosses the Chelyabinsk and Orenburg regions, then through Kazakhstan. In its middle course, the Ural River flows into the Caspian Sea. The main tributaries: Sakmara, Or, Bolshoi Kizil, Tanalyk, Ilek, Utva, Artazim.

Ural River on the map

The estuaries of the Urals are home to a huge number of different species of fish, including rare ones. Here you can find pike perch, carp, beluga, sturgeon, stellate sturgeon, whitefish, roach, and bream. Moreover, these fish species enter the river during spawning. Asp, chub, and crucian carp are caught in reservoirs located on the river. Pike, burbot, barbel, carp, and goby bite well. In the mountainous regions, in the upper reaches of the river, taimen, trout and grayling are found.

Fishing and recreation on the Ural River

This is the main spawning place for fish in the Caspian Sea, since navigation on the reservoir is reduced to a minimum, and there are very few bridges and crossings.

In the forests of the Ural valley live representatives of the animal world typical of this climate zone. These are: roe deer, wolves, deer, foxes, hares and wild boars. The habitat of a wide variety of waterfowl is observed.

The Ural River is quite fast-flowing, constantly changing the nature of the flow: from mountain to flat, then again with rifts (in rocky areas) and in the lower reaches it again turns into a calm state. Freeze-up continues from mid-autumn to mid-spring.

The Ural River throughout its entire length passes through several natural areas. In the upper reaches, in mountainous areas, dense mixed and coniferous forests approach the banks of the river. Birch, viburnum, bird cherry, aspen, and oak grow in the forests. The predominant coniferous species are pine, with fir and spruce also found.

In the area of ​​Saurkin and Polousov Yar there is a unique relict forest. Mushrooms grow in abundance, medicinal herbs, berries. These forests are characterized by undergrowth of raspberry and juniper thickets. In the river valley there are thickets of currants and alders.

The taiga forests surrounding the river are home to moose, roe deer, squirrels, and hares. There are wolves, foxes, wild boars, and brown bears. Large animals are preserved mainly in the upper reaches of the river, the most valuable of which is elk.

In coastal coniferous forests Black grouse, hazel grouse and wood grouse nest. In addition to them, bullfinches, tits, woodpeckers, and cuckoos live. There are hawks and eagle owls.

In its lower reaches, the Urals flows through steppe plains, forming oxbow lakes and channels. Many birds nest in the river floodplain; these places are located on the migration route of birds. They live here wild geese and ducks (mallard, teal, pintail). Photo materials used from Wikimedia © Foto, Wikimedia Commons