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The Ural (Kazakh
Kazakh language

Kazakh is a Turkic languages language closely related to Nogai language and Karakalpak language.Kazakh is an agglutinative language, and it employs vowel harmony....
: ?????, Jayiq or Zhayyq), known as Yaik before 1775, is a river flowing through Russia
Russia

Russia , or the Russian Federation , is a list of countries spanning more than one continent country extending over much of northern Eurasia....
 and Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan, also Kazakstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a large Eurasian country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the List of countries by area as well as the world's largest landlocked country, it has a territory of 2,727,300 km? ....
. It arises in the southern Ural Mountains
Ural Mountains

The Ural Mountains are a mountain range that runs roughly north and south through western Russia. They are usually considered as the natural boundary between Europe and Asia....
 and ends at the Caspian Sea
Caspian Sea

The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the List of lakes by area or a full-fledged sea. It has a surface area of 371,000 square kilometers and a volume of 78,200 cubic kilometers ....
. Its total length is 1,511 mi (2,428 km). It forms part of the traditional boundary
Borders of the continents

The borders of the continents are the limits of the several continents of the Earth, as defined by various geographical, cultural, and political criteria....
 between Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
 and Asia
Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent. It covers 8.6% of the Earth's total surface area and, with over 4 billion people, it contains more than 60% of the world's current human population....
.

The Ural arises on the eastern side of the Ural Mountains, flows south through Magnitogorsk
Magnitogorsk

Magnitogorsk is a mining and industrial types of inhabited localities in Russia located by the Ural River in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, with one of the largest iron and steel works in the country....
, and around the southern end of the Urals, through Orsk
Orsk

Orsk is a types of inhabited localities in Russia in Orenburg Oblast, Russia, situated in the southern Ural Mountains. The city straddles the Ural River....
 where it turns west for about 300 km, to Orenburg
Orenburg

Orenburg is a types of inhabited localities in Russia on the Ural River and the administrative center of Orenburg Oblast in the Volga Federal District of Russia....
, when the Sakmara River
Sakmara River

Sakmara River is a river in Russia that flows for 760 kilometers . It is a tributary of the Ural River, which it meets in Orenburg. The source of the Sakmara River is in the Bashkortostan....
 joins.






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The Ural (Kazakh
Kazakh language

Kazakh is a Turkic languages language closely related to Nogai language and Karakalpak language.Kazakh is an agglutinative language, and it employs vowel harmony....
: ?????, Jayiq or Zhayyq), known as Yaik before 1775, is a river flowing through Russia
Russia

Russia , or the Russian Federation , is a list of countries spanning more than one continent country extending over much of northern Eurasia....
 and Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan, also Kazakstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a large Eurasian country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the List of countries by area as well as the world's largest landlocked country, it has a territory of 2,727,300 km? ....
. It arises in the southern Ural Mountains
Ural Mountains

The Ural Mountains are a mountain range that runs roughly north and south through western Russia. They are usually considered as the natural boundary between Europe and Asia....
 and ends at the Caspian Sea
Caspian Sea

The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the List of lakes by area or a full-fledged sea. It has a surface area of 371,000 square kilometers and a volume of 78,200 cubic kilometers ....
. Its total length is 1,511 mi (2,428 km). It forms part of the traditional boundary
Borders of the continents

The borders of the continents are the limits of the several continents of the Earth, as defined by various geographical, cultural, and political criteria....
 between Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
 and Asia
Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent. It covers 8.6% of the Earth's total surface area and, with over 4 billion people, it contains more than 60% of the world's current human population....
.

The Ural arises on the eastern side of the Ural Mountains, flows south through Magnitogorsk
Magnitogorsk

Magnitogorsk is a mining and industrial types of inhabited localities in Russia located by the Ural River in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, with one of the largest iron and steel works in the country....
, and around the southern end of the Urals, through Orsk
Orsk

Orsk is a types of inhabited localities in Russia in Orenburg Oblast, Russia, situated in the southern Ural Mountains. The city straddles the Ural River....
 where it turns west for about 300 km, to Orenburg
Orenburg

Orenburg is a types of inhabited localities in Russia on the Ural River and the administrative center of Orenburg Oblast in the Volga Federal District of Russia....
, when the Sakmara River
Sakmara River

Sakmara River is a river in Russia that flows for 760 kilometers . It is a tributary of the Ural River, which it meets in Orenburg. The source of the Sakmara River is in the Bashkortostan....
 joins. From Orenburg it continues west, passing into Kazakhstan, then turning south again at Oral
Oral, Kazakhstan

Oral is a city in northwestern Kazakhstan, at the confluence of the Ural River and Chogan River Rivers close to the Russian border. As it is located on the western side of the Ural river, it is considered geographically in Europe....
, and meandering through a broad flat plain until it reaches the Caspian a few miles below Atyrau
Atyrau

Atyrau is a city in Kazakhstan, and the capital of Atyrau Province. It is located 2700 kilometers west of Almaty and 350 kilometers east of the Russian city of Astrakhan....
, where it forms a fine digitate delta at .

Tributaries, in order going upstream:
  • Cagan River
  • Irtek River
  • Utva River
  • Ilek River
    Ilek River

    The Ilek River is a tributary of the Ural River and lies in the Orenburg Oblast in Russia and Republic of Kazakhstan. Two main cities lie on the banks of the Ilek River: Alga and Aqt?be ....
    • Bol'saja Chobda
  • Kindel'a River
  • Sakmara River
    Sakmara River

    Sakmara River is a river in Russia that flows for 760 kilometers . It is a tributary of the Ural River, which it meets in Orenburg. The source of the Sakmara River is in the Bashkortostan....
    • Salmys River
  • Or River
    Or River

    Or is a river in Orenburg Oblast of Russia and Aktobe Province of Kazakhstan. It is a left tributary of the Ural River, and is 332 km long, with a drainage basin of 18 600 km?....
  • Suunduk River


History

In the Middle Ages, the city of Saray-Jük
Saray-Jük

Saray-J?k or Saraychyq was a medieval city on the border between Europe and Asia in the 10th-16th centuries. It was located on the Ural River, modern Kazakhstan, Atyrau Oblysy, near Sarayshyq village, 50 km above Atyrau....
 on the lower Ural was an important trade center on the Silk Road
Silk Road

The Silk Road is an extensive interconnected network of trade routes across the Asian continent connecting East, South, and Western Asia with the Mediterranean world, including North Africa and Europe....
. It later became an important center for the Golden Horde
Golden Horde

The Golden Horde is a East-Slavic designation for the Mongol?later Turkic languages?Muslim khanate established in the western part of the Mongol Empire after the Mongol invasion of Rus' in the 1240s: present-day Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Kazakhstan, and the Caucasus....
 and the Nogai Horde
Nogai Horde

The Nogai Horde was a confederation of Turkic peoples nomads that occupied the Pontic-Caspian steppe from about 1500 until pushed south by the Russians during the 17th century....
,

After the Russian conquest (late 16th century), the shores of the Ural became home to the Ural Cossacks, one of whose main activities was fishing for the sturgeon
Sturgeon

Sturgeon is the common name used for some 26 species of fish in the family Acipenseridae, including the genus Acipenser, Huso, Scaphirhynchus and Pseudoscaphirhynchus....
 and related fishes (including the true sturgeon, starry sturgeon
Starry sturgeon

Starry Sturgeon, Acipenser stellatus, also known as Drakul and Uzun Burun is a species of sturgeons, living in the Black, Azov, and Caspian sea basins....
, and beluga
Beluga

The Beluga or White Whale is an Arctic and sub-Arctic species of cetacean. It is one of two members of the family Monodontidae, along with the Narwhal....
) in the Ural River and the Caspian. A great variety of fishing techniques existed, the most famous of them was bagrenye (????????): spearing hibernating sturgeons in their underwater lairs in December. Another fishing technique was constructing a weir
Weir

A weir is a small overflow-type dam commonly used to raise the level of a river or stream. Weirs have traditionally been used to create Water mills in such places....
, known as uchug across the river, to catch fish going upstream to spawn. While the uchug weirs were also known in the Volga Delta
Volga Delta

The Volga Delta is the largest inland river delta in Europe, and occurs where Europe's largest river system, the Volga River, drains into the Caspian Sea in Russia's Astrakhan Oblast, north-east of the republic of Kalmykia....
, the bagrenye was thought to be a uniquely Ural technique.

The cossacks, known originally as the Yaik Cossacks, disliked the central government's attempts to impose rules and regulations on them, and on occasions rose in rebellions. After the largest rebellion - the one led by Yemelyan Pugachev
Pugachev's Rebellion

Pugachev's Rebellion of 1773-74 was the principal revolt in a series of popular rebellions that took place in Russia after 1762. It began as an organized insurrection of Yaik Cossacks headed by Emelyan Pugachev, a disaffected ex-lieutenant of the Russian Imperial army, against a background of profound peasant unrest and war with the Ottoman...
 - Empress Catherine
Catherine II of Russia

Catherine II, called Catherine the Great .The Russian empress Catherine II, known as Catherine the Great, reigned from 1762 to 1796. Under her direct auspices the Russian Empire expanded, improved in its administration, and underwent a dramatic policy of Westernization....
 had them renamed to "Ural Cossacks", and the Yaik River, to the Ural River.

The famous Civil War
Russian Civil War

The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed and the Bolshevik party assumed power in Saint Petersburg....
 commander Vasily Chapayev
Vasily Chapayev

Vasily Ivanovich Chapayev was a celebrated Russian soldier and Red Army commander during the Russian Civil War.Chapayev was born into a poor peasant family in a village called Budayka, now part of Cheboksary....
 is thought to have drowned in the Ural, on September 5, 1919.

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