Ural Mountains

Mountain range in Russia, forming the traditional boundary between Europe and Asia, and separating the E European Plain (W) from the W Siberian Lowlands (E); extends 1750 km/1100 mi S from Novaya Zemlya in the Arctic Ocean to the N Kazakhstan border; low, parallel N–S ridges, generally 200–1000 m/700–3300 ft high; N Urals contain the highest peak, Mt Narodnaya (1894 m/6214 ft); C Urals form a plateau, crossed by several transport routes, including the Trans-Siberian Railway; S Urals consist of several parallel ranges, reaching a maximum width of 150–200 km/100–125 mi; heavily forested; rich mineral deposits; oil, iron ore, coal, copper, manganese, gold, aluminium, potash, bauxite, asbestos, zinc, lead, silver, nickel, gemstones; industrialized area in the S; cities include Magnitogorsk, Yekaterinburg (Sverdlovsk).

The Ural Mountains (Russian: Ура́льские го́ры, Uralskiye gory) also known simply as the Urals and as the Riphean Mountains in Greco-Roman antiquity, is a mountain range that runs roughly north and south through western Russia.

The Urals extend 2,500 km from the Kazakh steppes along the northern border of Kazakhstan to the coast of the Arctic ocean. The Virgin Komi Forests in the northern Urals are recognized as a World Heritage site.

Yekaterinburg is the largest city and the self-proclaimed capital of the Urals, though "Urals" is a geographical term, not an administrative one.

The Urals are among the world's oldest extant mountain ranges.

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

The Urals have large deposits of gold, platinum, ore, coal, steel, nickel, and other minerals.