The main rivers of the Urals. Rivers of the Urals: description, characteristics, features and interesting facts

The Ural River is a river in Eastern Europe. Previously it was called Yaik and originates on steep slopes Southern Urals.

The great Ural River flows into the Caspian Sea, flowing through the territories of Kazakhstan and Russia.

Source of the Urals

Where does the Ural River originate? Its source is located 12 km near the village of Voznesenka in southern Russia in the Republic of Bashkortostan. This republic borders on Kazakhstan.

Memorial plaque to the Ural River photo

In appearance, the source of the river is an ordinary spring that comes out of the ground. Conventionally, it is believed that the stream that is the source big river Ural is natural boundary between Asia and Europe. On this occasion, a memorial plaque was installed here.

Characteristics of the Ural River

The length of the river is 2,428 km. The Ural is considered the third longest river in Europe. Volga and Danube took first and second places. The area of ​​the Ural basin is asymmetrical and amounts to 231,000 square kilometers.

The right side is half the size of the right. However, there are more right tributaries. The right tributaries are mountain rivers in nature, and the left tributaries are lowland rivers.

Regime of the Ural River

The river is 70% fed by snow. Not a large number of precipitation. During floods, the riverbed of the Urals widens noticeably. Typically, the highest river water levels occur in April-May. In early November, the river begins to freeze in the upper reaches. In the lower reaches of the Urals it freezes at the end of November. The river is freed from ice in March-April. Ice drift occurs quickly, in a short period.

Flora and fauna

The Urals are rich in fish fauna (more than 40 species). Let's take a look at the most common ones:

• Migratory fish: sturgeon; beluga and stellate sturgeon; whitefish.
• Semi-anadromous fish: roach; zander; bream; carp.
• Resident fish: roach and silver bream; pike and bream; dace and crucian carp; kutum and sinets; ide and carp; chub and char; asp and catfish; rudd and burbot; podust and pike perch; tench and bleak; barbel and perch; gudgeon and goby; ruff and trout.

In the upper reaches of the Urals you can find grayling and taimen. Along the bed of the Urals, throughout its entire course, live a wide variety of animals, for which the Urals have become their home. So, let's get acquainted with the fauna of the Urals:

• In the north of the Urals there are representatives of the tundra: reindeer.
• In the south of the river there are representatives of the steppes: lizards, snakes, shrews, marmots.
• The taiga is rich in predators: lynxes, ermines, sables, foxes, wolverines, wolves and bears. The following representatives of ungulates are also found here: roe deer, deer, moose.
• In the river valleys you can find beavers, muskrats and otters.

Cities

With the flow great river The following cities are located in the Urals: Verkhneuralsk, Magnitogorsk, Orsk, Novotroitsk, Uralsk, Atyrau.

Tributaries

• Right tributaries of the Ural River: Sakmara; Big Dogwood; Tanalyk; Artazim; Guberlya; Irtek and Kindelya.
• Left tributaries of the Ural River: Utva; Gumbeyka; Or; Suunduk; Ilek; Big Kumak; Barbasheva.

Tourism on the river

The Ural River attracts tourists. The mountainous sections of the river are quite actively used by tourists for rafting. Various sports centers are located along the river. Here they offer interesting boat excursions along the turbulent river streams.

The Ural River is unique in that one bank of it is in Asia and the other in Europe. The nature on the banks of the river is quite diverse. On the left bank, near the village of Yangelsky, you can enjoy very beautiful landscapes. Quite hard to find best places for picnic, camping and fishing than here.

Ural river photo

Near the steep slopes, rocky cliffs were exposed for 200 meters. Tourists find ancient remains of organisms in the rocks. They also sprout here rare species plants and lichens listed in the Red Book.

Near the village of Chesnokovka is located Kyzlar-Tau (translated from Tatar as Maiden Mountain). The uniqueness of this area is considered to be the layers of red sandstones washed away by water over the years. Thousands of tourists come here to see them. There is a belief that girls came running to this area to dance in circles, and brave horsemen spied on them.

beauty of the Ural river photo

Yours modern name The Urals and Yaik received thanks to the decision of the Great. She signed a decree renaming the Yaik River to the Ural, since the river originates from the Ural Mountains. The outstanding poet mentioned the Urals in his notes as the third longest river in the old world.

Initially, even before the reign of Catherine II, the Ural River was called Yaik. Translated from Turkic, it meant flooding - apparently, every spring it caused a lot of trouble to the surrounding nomadic tribes. However, in 1775 it was renamed by a special decree of the Empress. It is noteworthy that many Bashkirs and Kazakhs still call the Urals in the old way.

Length of the Ural River

The total length of this river is 2.428 thousand km. This is quite a lot - for example, the length of the most important Russian river, the Volga, is 3,530 thousand km. By the way, after the Volga and Danube, the river in question is the third longest in our country.

It flows through the territory of some Russian regions - for example, Chelyabinsk and Orenburg, and also crosses Bashkortostan. In addition to our country, it flows through the territory of Kazakhstan. Depending on where this river flows, it has different type. An ordinary mountain river - this is what the Ural looks like from its source to the city of Verkhne-Uralsk; the flat river stretches all the way to Magnitogorsk. Further along its path there are rocks, which means that from Magnitogorsk to Orel we can encounter many different rapids. Next - again flat part, with many channels and oxbow lakes.

If we talk about depth, it also differs in different places: from half a meter in the upper reaches of the mountains, but on the plain and in the lower reaches it is deeper.

In winter, the Urals freezes, this usually happens in the middle or end of November, and the ice breaks up in March or April, depending on weather conditions.

Source of the Ural River

The source of the Ural River, its geographical origin located in the mountains of the same name, on the Uraltau ridge. In this place, which is located at an altitude of more than 600 m above sea level, lies the foot of Mount Nazhimtau. It is noteworthy that people live there too - 12 km from this place is the village of Voznesenka, which geographically belongs to the Uchalinsky district of Bashkortostan.

Tributaries of the Ural River

The Urals have two very powerful tributaries - the Sakmara and Ilek rivers. In addition, another river flows into it, called Sakmara.

Mouth of the Ural River

(Iriklinskoe reservoir from the waters of the Ural River)

The Ural is a fast river. Many reservoirs have been created here. For most of the year, the Ural is a small river, but in the spring, after the snow melts, the flow can be so powerful and violent that it will carry away everything in its path, and its waters spread over many kilometers - the width of the river in some places can exceed 30 km. At the end of the journey, the Urals carries its waters to the Caspian Sea, where it flows.

Cities of Russia on the Ural River

(Magnitogorsk is a city at the foot of Magnitnaya Mountain, located on both sides of the banks of the Ural River)

The banks of the Urals are not as densely populated as, for example, the Volga coast. However, you can also find there big cities- for example, Magnitogorsk, Orsk or Orenburg. In addition, there are many large and small villages. Today the Ural is not a navigable river - it lost this significance quite a long time ago. But the route is quite attractive for tourists: on its banks there are the Iriklinskoye Gorge and the Orskie Gates, several very beautiful mountains and mountain sections. Tourists love to raft along it, and fishermen expect a good catch. The Ural River is also notable for the fact that one bank of it flows through the European part of Russia, and the other through the Asian part.

Ural (Bashk. Yayi ҡ , Kaz. Zhaiyk) is a river in Eastern Europe, flows through Russia and Kazakhstan, flows into the Caspian Sea.

The ancient name (before 1775) was Yaik. The hydronym goes back through Turkic media to the ancient Iranian name: under the name *Daiks the river is shown on the map of Ptolemy of the 2nd century AD. Currently ancient name river is official in Kazakhstan, as well as in the Bashkir language.

It is the third longest river in Europe, second in this indicator only to the Volga and Danube (even longer than the Dnieper!).

On old European maps the Urals are called Rhymnus fluvius. The first mention in Russian chronicles was in 1140.

Geography

It originates on the slopes of the Kruglaya Sopka peak (Uraltau ridge) in the Uchalinsky region of Bashkortostan. Flows into the Caspian Sea.

Pyotr Rychkov in his book “Topography of Orenburg” wrote:

Yaik has a peak behind the Ural Mountains on the Siberian Road, in the Kupakan volost, from a mountain called Kalgan Tau, which means: The extreme or remaining mountain in the Urals

This river has been dividing the Bashkirtsov and the Kirgis Kaisaks since ancient times

URAL RIVER BASIN

At the beginning, the Ural flows from north to south, but having met the elevated plateau of the Kazakh steppe, it turns sharply to the northwest, after Orenburg it changes direction to the southwest, near the city of Uralsk the river makes a new sharp bend to the south and in this main direction, meandering now to the west, now to the east, flows into the Caspian Sea. 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 66,000 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.

URAL RIVER NEAR THE CITY OF URALSK

The Ural basin ranks sixth in size among the rivers of Russia and is equal to 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 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.

SOURCE OF THE URAL RIVER - BASHKIRIA

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 ashes 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 the spring flood, which occurs from the melting of snow on the Ural Mountains, they are all filled with water, which remains in some until 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 those places where the banks are sloping, the river overflows 3-7 meters. The Urals are not very navigable. Sturgeon, stellate sturgeon, carp, catfish, pike perch, bream, catfish, and chubak are found here. There is also a water supply from the river to the oil fields.

SEVEN BROTHERS RESERVE IN THE CHELYABINSK REGION

Tributaries

Most of the tributaries flow into it from the right side, facing the General Syrt; of them are known: Artazim, Bolshoi Kizil, 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.

The following rivers flow in from the left: Gumbeyka, Suunduk, Bolshoi Kumak, Or, Ilek, Utva, Barbasheva (Barbastau) and Solyanka, noticeable only in spring and drying up in summer.

Border between Asia and Europe

Memorial sign “Europe - Asia” on the banks of the Urals in Verkhneuralsk

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 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 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.

URAL RIVER - ORENBURG CITY

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 Ural is the third river in Europe in terms of its length; in length it is second only to the Volga and Danube. Even the Dnieper is 249 kilometers shorter than the Urals.

The Ural is the main water artery of the Orenburg region. The Ural River crosses the Orenburg region from east to west, flowing through 10 districts of the region for 1164 km. The main feature of the river is the uneven flow. During the spring flood, the Ural turns into a huge watercourse, filling the entire floodplain 6 - 8 km wide.

The Ural is the third river in Europe in terms of its length; in length it is second only to the Volga and Danube. Even the Dnieper is 249 kilometers shorter than the Urals.

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 Uralau, 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. 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, Aituarki 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 stem “Zhaik” with the meaning “wide river bed” or “spreading widely.”

GOLDEN AUTUMN ON THE URAL RIVER

THE LARGEST TRIBUTORS OF THE URAL IN THE ORENBURG REGION

Sakmara River- this is the largest tributary of the Urals. The length of Sakmara within the Orenburg region is about 380 km.

In the upper reaches of the Sakmara it is a typical mountain river with steep banks and narrow terraces, in the middle and lower reaches its valley is wide, asymmetrical with well-defined two terraces and a populated floodplain.

Ilek River- 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.

FOREST-STEPPE VALLEY OF THE URAL RIVER

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. East of 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 greatest height the chalk and marly slopes reach 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 a 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 junction of General Syrt and the 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 blocks of sandy-clayey sediments associated with the activity of 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, rocks appear on the same horizon of different ages and composition. This peculiar 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 in certain environmental conditions. last years Chilim lakes have been taken under protection in Mordovia, Bashkiria, the Altai Mountains, the Far East and many other regions of our country. Chilim is listed in the Red Book.

Jasper Mountain Colonel

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 many 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 you 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.

FISHING AND FISH ON THE URAL RIVER

Fish spawning in the Urals

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. The author had the opportunity to lead the work of this expedition.

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 Verkhnekirsanovsky and Aksuatsky beaches with a dense pebble surface, located respectively 179 and 36 kilometers above Uralsk.

UPPER URAL RIVER

Belorybitsa in the Urals

White fish 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 whitefish 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.

Whitefish is a valuable commercial fish, but its catch is now 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 eye, 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”.

URAL RIVER, GUBERLIN MOUNTAINS

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. A small amount of 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.

In addition to sturgeon, other species of migratory fish are found in the Urals. The most interesting of them are whitefish and lamprey.

The whitefish is endemic to the Caspian basin; it is not found anywhere in the world except the Caspian Sea and its tributaries. Just recently, the white fish was threatened with complete extinction. After the construction of a cascade of Volga hydroelectric power stations, it almost completely lost its natural spawning grounds located in the Ufa River. In the 50s and 60s, a small Caspian herd of whitefish was supported by spawning grounds in the Urals.

The spawning sites of these fish in the Urals have not been precisely established. Belorybitsa enters the river from the Caspian Sea from October to March. Its spawning occurs in October - November on gravel and pebble soils. In the early 80s, individual specimens of whitefish were caught in the Urals near Orenburg, Sakmara, and Bolshoi Ika. One of the spawning grounds of the white fish is probably located under Mount Mayachnaya in the Belyaevsky district, 200 km above Orenburg. The number of white fish spawning in the Urals is apparently estimated at several hundred specimens, since scientists now count about 20 thousand individuals of this species in the entire Caspian herd.

TRIBUTAR OF THE URAL RIVER - GUBERLIA RIVER

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 in the Urals

Sturgeon — freshwater fish, many of them have adapted to live in brackish and even sea ​​waters. But not a single species of sturgeon can reproduce outside freshwater bodies. 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 lose 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.

FISHING ON THE URAL RIVER

This time we decided to go to Krasnaya Luka with the whole family. It attracted my father because he, a lover of fishing for bait, always left here with a good catch. Unmarked place - not far from the city, rarely visited by fishermen. It is also convenient because in the afternoon there was shade under the yar, saving from the sweltering heat. At the top, a ravine overgrown with green grass approached the very shore. There stood a group of silver poplars right there.

The sun was still high when we arrived at the place. A man was rising heavily towards us, bending under the weight of a backpack from which carp tails were sticking out. We looked at each other silently. He looked at us and our gear unkindly and contemptuously. I asked naively, running my finger along the trembling carp’s tail:

- Did you catch it here? On fishing rods?

“Here, but not about your honor,” he answered and, muttering: “Fishermen for me too,” he turned onto the path. We could hope that the parking lot where the carp was fattening was open; for a good catch - hardly: where are we, really, with our fishing rods. And I had no experience.

In the morning, when the coastal pebbles burned my feet with cold, I took my short donkeys and went upstream, where the ravine went steeply under the water. I looked around. There were cigarette butts lying around. Broken shells glittered like mother-of-pearl. On the trampled small area there are holes from fishing rods. There was no doubt: that unfriendly uncle was fishing here yesterday. The rapids, hitting the sheer wall of the ravine, moved away at a slight angle to the fairway, forming a small pool. The water flowed smoothly and calmly, which indicated great depth. Unwinding my unsightly fishing rods, designed for small change, I shuddered: about fifteen meters away, where the shadow from the ravine ended, a carp jumped out. Then again. And further. Gold bars of fish marked the surface of the water in radiating circles. The breeze carried the whitish wisps of fog into the tuft matted with dew. I cast... And then the end of the rod trembled, bent down, frozen in that position for several seconds. Then he straightened up and nodded smoothly, widely...

I don’t remember how I pulled out the fish. Everything happened as if in a cloud. But this was it, my first carp. I ran along the shore, slipping and stumbling, clutching the fish tightly to my chest with both hands, and shouted triumphantly:

- Caught! Got it!

Now, many years later, I ironically, but with satisfaction, laugh at myself: no, perhaps it was not I who caught the carp, but he caught me, and so that I cannot escape for the rest of my life!

In the Urals there are two types of carp: the migratory carp - the one that rises to the upper reaches from the sea, and the local one. The guest is silvery-pale in color, long, and wiry. His own is the color of red gold with an orange tail fin, humpbacked, high in the back, and shorter. This is a handsome man. He is much stronger, more careful and... fatter than the passing one.

There used to be a lot of carp. They caught him easily and without any exciting sporting interest: just think, he lost it, someone else will grab him! About twenty years ago, the fishing collective farms of the Guryev region were not well equipped technically, and there were not enough people in the fisheries.

Now the picture is completely different. At the mouth of the Urals, day and night, dozens of seines from both banks scoop up fish for spawning. If earlier the carp reached Orenburg, now it does not reach Uralsk every year. There was much less of it in the river. And the more honorable the trophy is when you catch not a skinny, hungry alien, but a violent “master” who is capable of any tricks.

The common bait for carp in May and June is forest worms, of which there are a lot in the local coastal forests, which are flooded during high water. Later, if rainfall is rare and there are few worms, shells of different colors serve as bait: white, yellow, pink, gray with black, reddish. However, the best is considered to be a combined bait: a shell or a piece of fish fillet and an earthworm. At the end of August and September it is good to fish for bread, mainly in creeks where the current is not strong.

The second-ranking fish in the Urals is asp. Who hasn’t seen his robber raids on the little things fattening on the shallows? Who hasn’t admired its powerful splashes in the waters, under the yar? But it is not so easy to catch this wary fish. However, I don’t know how it is in other bodies of water, but in the Urals, catching asp is not that difficult.

I believe that the asp is not picky about bait. In my practice, there has never been a case where he refused a live fish, a frog, a grasshopper, a brush of worms, or a oscillating spoon.

I remember such a case. One day at the end of October, after an unsuccessful fishing trip in a quarry (deep hole), I was returning through the Transshipment Grove. A gusty cold wind blew, and it rained at times. There were steep waves on the river. I don’t remember how I came out onto the coastal sand. Somewhere in my mind it flashed: “My hopes for biting bluegill and bream in the quarry did not come true. Maybe there will be pike perch here? This place has a two-meter depth and a smooth, moderate current. Without thinking for a long time, I baited the bottom with a piece of fish and threw it away. Soon the line tightened, the tip smoothly bent towards the water. Undercut - empty.

I cast again, and again a bite immediately followed. This time I felt that a large fish was resisting in the depths. Who? Pike perch don't behave like that. This is a large-mouthed asp with a golden rim around its eyes. After him, I pulled out another one and that’s it: there were no more bites. Accident? Just a month ago, even two weeks, asps were caught using a spoon, which was thrown under a ravine where insects fell, and in upper layers bleaks scurried about in the water. Now the small fry have gone into quiet water, hid in snags, the grasshoppers have disappeared, and the predator has nothing to do here. It is equally useless to look for it on the rifts: it does not chase the fry, does not hit, and does not make itself known. And yet, as it turned out, there are asps in small places, although my trophies at that time could not be considered convincing evidence.

If on a calm day we look at the river from an elevation, we will distinguish yellow and dark spots. These are underwater shallows, alternating with holes. Sometimes the shallows have the shape of an arc, parallel to the shore and sharply plunging into the water. In such places, shallow pits are formed. The ridge of the sandbank (the mane), which slopes gently down to the middle of the river, is clearly visible. Behind the manes are the asp’s favorite places. Here he hunts for minnows.

And so I came here again. Now with spinning. It was a quiet day, and the bottom topography was clearly visible. I made several casts: no chase, no escapes. The spoon lay about a meter further than the ridge. I had to increase the cast from 20 m to 40-50. And as soon as the metal bait touched the water, a sharp jerk immediately followed - breakers appeared on the calm water. So in three hours I caught several asps.

And again doubt: the reason for the luck, perhaps, was in favorable weather - quiet, sunny, and the asp came out onto the sandbank. A few days later I fished in these places again. This time a strong westerly wind was blowing, steep waves were moving across the Urals, heavy clouds hung low above the ground, ready to burst into rain or snow. It had been drizzling all night the night before, and the sands, previously golden, became gray and gloomy. Cold, damp. But the asp still grabbed the spoon. Moreover, it is large - up to 2-3 kg. Then I made another discovery for myself: in the fall, predators do not walk around like in the summer, but stand in one place. And as soon as the lure appears near their camp, one of them rushes at it.

I even mentally drew a circle for myself on the water: hit it - there is an asp, miss - throw it again. The most catchy spoon is a medium-sized one, the “Baikal” type, painted on the inside with red lead. But when fishing with a spinning rod on the sands, you need a certain skill. Don't forget that you are fishing in shallow waters. Immediately after casting, you need to take a few steps back in order to quickly pick up the line that has sagged due to the wind, while simultaneously reeling it onto the reel. At the same time, the rod is raised almost vertically, so that the reel is at chest level.

I love fishing with a fishing rod and spinning rod, but still, in my opinion, fly fishing is the most exciting, fascinating and interesting form of fishing. At the same time, it is important that there is no need to carry around a bunch of fishing rods, main and spare weights for bottoms, bags of worms, shells...

You, of course, have more than once seen ides and chubs leisurely strolling in calm water, in the shade of trees hanging over the water. You just waved your hand, and the fish seemed to melt into the depths. Was:. - and no. I can’t even believe that there were red-feathered beauties standing not far from evil. It is very difficult to catch them with a simple fishing rod in August. The most delicious attachments are useless. And then fly fishing comes to the rescue.

In the evening, before sunset, you hurry into a hollow, densely overgrown with grass: dew appears in the lowlands earlier. And the grasshoppers, whose wings become fluffy, are helpless. Now it’s no longer difficult to quickly fill a jar with them. Over my shoulder is a fish bag, in my hand is a light three-meter fishing rod. That's all the equipment. Convenient, easy.

While it is light, you choose an area (so that there are no bushes on the shore) with shallow depths, with sand, pebbles, and wait. You watch how wagtails, squeaking and flying from hillock to hillock, settle down for the night. Behind them appear crows, silent in the evening. Next are the magpies. Dawn is quite good. Silence envelops you like cotton wool. Somewhere a fox is yapping, an eagle owl is hooting, a large fish is striking. A light wind either brings a wave of tart meadow infusion, or dry heat from the steppe. But in the west a scarlet stripe is already barely noticeable flowing. It's time. You go down to the water. You unwind the fishing line and meter by meter, pull it out strongly so that there are no rings or kinks. Meadow grasshoppers are small, and therefore you put several on the hook. Then you gently tilt the rod back, wait a second or two for the line to fly out to its full length. Swing forward, and about nine meters from you the nozzle falls onto the water. Letting the current pull the line, you pull it towards you, slightly moving it to the side.

The moon rises, and a golden path lies on the river. Nightingales are singing in the coastal forest. And the hand, over and over again, sends a fishing line with a nozzle from behind the back to, downstream, where small things are busy near the shore. Another cast, another... And suddenly a blow! The small fry shivers to the sides. Something alive and heavy is pulling the fishing line. Finally, it dawns on him that there is a fish on the hook. It’s not hard to guess which one: the chub immediately throws itself out of the water; the asp goes into the depths; In its own way, with a short twitch, the ide resists.

Passes unnoticed summer night. Behind us is about three kilometers of road through rubble and steep slopes... After all, when fly fishing it’s like this: you catch one or two ides - and move on. Meanwhile, the sun shows its sleepy eye over the forest, pink fog rises over the river. Sonya. Silence. And fatigue... There are several ides and chubs in the bag. Time to go home. Last mandatory procedure- bathing. Reluctantly you take off your clothes and, after hesitating, rush into the water. It seems like it wasn’t sleepless night, severe fatigue. Refreshed, invigorated, as if the river had poured some of its inexhaustible energy into you, you walk along the road. The way back seems shorter and easier.

The Urals are rich in fish. There is a lot of it in lakes, oxbow lakes, and steppe rivers. You can get to any intended place by bus or car, which now go to all areas of the region.

RECREATION IN THE URALS

There are many oxbow lakes in the river valley. The banks are mostly steep.

The winding bed of the river often changes, as a result it often turned out that villages standing on the river eventually ended up on an oxbow or even far from the water.

There are several reservoirs on the river, the largest and most beautiful among them is Iriklinskoye.

In the past, the Ural was a large river and was navigable. In particular, water transport ran from Orenburg to Uralsk. However, every year summer time the river is becoming shallower, more fordable, and navigation is a thing of the past. The causes of shallowing mainly lie in the plowing of steppes and the destruction of forest belts.

Scientists and social activists sounded the alarm. Plans began to be developed to save the river, restore its ecosystem and fill it with water, and environmental expeditions were organized every summer. I would like to hope that the river will be saved.

And although the Ural River has lost its navigability, it is quite suitable for tourist rafting. Of course, it is not comparable in beauty to rivers such as Chusovaya or Ai, but here you can have an interesting time and have a good rest.

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.

In the Urals you can see such beautiful geological and landscape natural monuments as the Iriklinskoye Gorge, Orskie Gates, the Poperechnaya and Mayachnaya mountains, the Nikolsky section and others. There is good fishing on the river. In the past, the Ural River was famous for sturgeon. At the end of the 1970s, the share of the Ural River in the world production of sturgeon was 33 percent, and in the production of black caviar - 40 percent!.. Unfortunately, now the sturgeon population has decreased by more than 30 times.

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.

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SOURCE OF INFORMATION AND PHOTO:

http://prirodaurala.ru/reka-ural/

http://www.orenobl.ru/priroda/ural.php

Wikipedia website.

http://www.inforybaku.ru/rybolovnye-puteshestviya/460-ural-ural-reka.html

http://www.kraeved74.ru/

The Urals have a developed river network belonging to the basins of the Caspian, Kara and Barents seas. Ural at 2.5 thousand km. extends from the shores of the Arctic Ocean to the semi-deserts of Kazakhstan. He has a complex geological structure, the variety of natural conditions that affect rivers.

River - natural water flow(watercourse), flowing in the depression it has developed - a permanent natural channel, and fed by surface and underground runoff from its basin. In each river, a distinction is made between its place of origin - the source of the river and the place (section) where it flows into the sea, lake or confluence with another river - the mouth.
Depending on the topography of the area within which the rivers flow, they are divided into mountainous and flat. Many rivers alternate between mountainous and flat areas.
Mountain rivers, as a rule, are distinguished by large slopes, rapid currents, and flow in narrow valleys; erosion processes predominate.
Lowland rivers are characterized by the presence of channel meanders formed as a result of channel processes. On lowland rivers, areas of erosion of the bed and accumulation of sediment on it alternate, resulting in the formation of rifts and riffles, and deltas at the mouths. Sometimes branches that branch off from a river merge with another river.
The rivers of the Urals are of great economic importance: sources of water supply settlements And industrial enterprises. Reservoirs have been created on some rivers.

The rivers of the Urals have a developed river network belonging to the basins of the Caspian, Kara and Barents seas. Numerous deep rivers originate from the Northern Urals, carrying their waters to the Caspian, Barents and Kara seas. The main rivers flowing from the western slope of the ridge are the tributaries of the Kama - Kosva, Yayva, Vishera. The largest river of the European North, the Pechora, with its tributaries the Unya, Ilych, Podcherye and Shchugor, also originates on the western slope. From the eastern slope flow the Northern Sosva and its left tributaries - Tolya, Nyais, Manya, Yatriya and the tributaries of the Tavda - Lozva, Vizhay, Ivdel, Sosva.

Most of the rivers in the mountainous region of the Northern Urals are typical mountain streams. They are distinguished by a poorly developed longitudinal profile, a steep drop, a fast, sometimes stormy current, and the presence of rapids and rifts in the channels. The most characteristic in this regard are the rivers of the northern part of the Northern Urals, the territory of which was covered for a long time with ice, which delayed the deepening of the valleys. The rivers here have a steeper fall, and therefore higher flow speeds, than the rivers of the southern part of the Northern Urals (the Vishera, Yayva, Sosva, Lozva basins, etc.), which managed to cut through deeper valleys and lost most of the rapids and rapids.
The amount of river flow in the Urals is significantly greater than in the adjacent Russian and West Siberian Plains. Opa increases when moving from the southeast to the northwest of the Urals and from the foothills to the tops of the mountains. The most water-bearing rivers are the Pechora basin and the northern tributaries of the Kama, the least water-bearing is the Ural River.
An important feature of most rivers of the Urals is the relatively small variability of annual flow. The ratio of annual water flows of the most high-water year to the water flows of the least-water year usually ranges from 1.5 to 3. The exception is the forest-steppe and steppe rivers of the Southern Urals, where this ratio increases significantly.

Many rivers of the Urals suffer from pollution from industrial waste, so the issues of protection and purification of river waters are especially relevant here.
Many rivers originate in the Urals: large and small, some begin with fontanelles, flowing from the slopes of mountains, others flow from swamps, and others have their sources in lakes. The rivers of the Urals are picturesque and different from each other, and each river has its own history. The Urals are very rich in beautiful and fast rivers with clear water, with interesting rapids and rifts, there are many routes for sports rafting and for family recreation. There are many beautiful rocks and stones along the shores, endless taiga and the Ural ranges around. The rivers were roads and fed with fish and meat.

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 and tourist routes along the Ural rivers.

In the Polar Urals, which starts from the northern tip of Payer, a few high-water rivers originate. These are Sob, Yelets, Khara-Matalou, etc.

In the Subpolar and Northern Urals, fast and rapids rivers flow to the west from high mountain peaks, the Pechora and its tributaries - Kos-Yu, Shchugor, Podcherem, Ilych, which carry water into the Barents Sea.
Rivers originating from the eastern slopes of the Subpolar and Northern Urals; flow into the Northern Sosva and Malaya Ob, belong to the Kara Sea basin. This mountain rivers. They are shallow, fast, rocky riverbeds with rifts and rapids, in the valleys of rocky gorges.

The Middle Urals, the low-mountain part, and forest areas of the Western Cis-Urals, Eastern taiga Trans-Urals - the birthplace of numerous rivers, originate from the rivers of the Kama basin - the largest and most abundant river in the Urals.

On the rivers of the Urals there are more than 300 artificial reservoirs (ponds and reservoirs) with a total area of ​​4.2 thousand square meters. km. A significant part of them are “mining ponds” on the Perm, Sverdlovsk and Chelyabinsk region. Their dams are unique engineering structures.
The largest rivers on the western slope of the Urals are the Kama, Vishera, Ufa, Belaya, and Sylva. On the eastern slope there are Lozva, Sosva, Tura, Tavda, Pyshma, Iset.
Chusovaya is the only river that arises on the eastern slope, crosses the ridge along an ancient fault and flows along the western slope. In the extreme southeast of the Urals flows the Ural River, the third longest in Europe.

Regions)

Source Uraltau ridge Estuary Caspian Sea Length 2428 km Pool area 231,000 km²

Ural- a river in eastern Europe. Passes through the territory of Russia. Ancient name Yaik(from bashk. Yayik, Yaimak- expand) (refusal. Zhaiyk). Currently, the ancient name of the river is official in Kazakhstan, and is also used in Bashkiria. The river was renamed by decree of Catherine II, after the suppression of the Peasant War led by Pugachev, in which the Yaik Cossacks actively took part.

It originates in the mountains of the Southern Urals (Uraltau range) in Bashkiria. Flows into the Caspian Sea. Tributaries: Sakmara, Chagan (right); Ory, Ilek (left). The Iriklinskaya hydroelectric power station was built on the river.

The Ural River may have been shown as early as Ptolemy's map of the 2nd century AD, under the name Daiks. On ancient maps the Urals are called Rhymnus fluvius. Its peak lies in the southern spurs of Karatysh, and comes from the top of the mountain called Kalgan-Tau (that is, the extreme, remaining, last of the Ural ridge). At the beginning, the Ural flows from north to south, but having met the elevated plateau of the Kazakh steppe, it turns sharply to the northwest, after Orenburg it changes direction to the southwest, near the city of Uralsk the river makes a new sharp bend to the south and in this main direction, meandering now to the west, now to the east, flows into the Caspian Sea. The mouth of the Urals is divided into several branches and gradually becomes shallower. In 1769, Pallas counted 19 branches, some of which were allocated by the Urals 66,000 meters above its confluence with the sea; in 1821 there were only 9, 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 that separated from the main channel on the left was Peretask, which was divided into channels - Peretasknaya and Aleksashkin. Even lower, the channel of the Urals was divided into 2 branches - Zolotinsky and Yaitsky, and both the first and the second were divided into 2 mouths: Bolshoye and Maloye Yaitskoye, Bolshoye and Staroye Zolotinskoye. Another branch of Bukharka branched off from the Zolotinsky branch to the east, flowing into the sea between Peretask and Zolotoy. The Ural basin ranks sixth in size and is equal to 219,910 square meters. km. The length of the river itself is estimated at 2379 km. The water horizon is at an absolute height of 635 m.

The fall of the Urals water is not particularly great; from the upper reaches to the city of Orsk it has about 3 ft. per mile, from Orsk to Uralsk no more than 1 ft., 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 city of Uralsk, the river bottom is lined with small pebbles, which are found in somewhat larger sizes at the “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 ashes 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 the spring flood, which occurs from the melting of snow on the Ural Mountains, they are all filled with water, which remains in some until 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. The Urals are not very navigable.

Tributaries

Most of the tributaries flow into it from the right side, facing the General Syrt; of them 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.

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