Central Asia & Russia physical map

Central Asia & Russia

Crimean Peninsula

Crimea is a peninsula in Eastern Europe, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, almost entirely surrounded by the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. The Isthmus of Perekop connects the peninsula to Kherson Oblast in mainland Ukraine. The region has been under Russian occupation since 2014.

Volga River

The Volga is the longest river in Europe. Situated in Russia, it flows through Central Russia to Southern Russia and into the Caspian Sea. The Volga has a length of 3,531 km, and a catchment area of 1,360,000 km².

Ob River

The Ob is a major river in Russia. It is in western Siberia, and with its tributary the Irtysh forms the world's seventh-longest river system, at 5,410 kilometres. The Ob forms at the confluence of the Biya and Katun which have their origins in the Altai Mountains.

Yenisei River

The Yenisey is the fifth-longest river system in the world, and the largest to drain into the Arctic Ocean. Rising in Mungaragiyn-gol in Mongolia, it follows a northerly course through Lake Baikal and the Krasnoyarsk Dam before draining into the Yenisey Gulf in the Kara Sea.

Lena River

The Lena is a river in the Russian Far East and is the easternmost river of the three, great rivers of Siberia, including the River Ob and the River Yenisey, which flow into the Arctic Ocean.

Amur River

The Amur River or Heilong River is a perennial river in Northeast Asia, forming the natural border between the Russian Far East and Northeast China. The Amur proper is 2,824 km long, and has a drainage basin of 1,855,000 km².

Aral Sea

The Aral Sea was an endorheic lake lying between Kazakhstan to its north and Uzbekistan to its south, which began shrinking in the 1960s and largely dried up by the 2010s. Formerly the third-largest lake in the world with an area of 68,000 km2 (26,300 sq mi), the Aral Sea began shrinking after the rivers that fed it were diverted by Soviet irrigation projects. The eastern basin is now called the Aralkum Desert. The receding sea has left huge plains covered with salt and toxic chemicals from weapons testing, industrial projects, and runoff of pesticides and fertilizer.

Lake Baikal

Lake Baikal is an ancient, massive lake in the mountainous Russian region of Siberia, north of the Mongolian border. It is the deepest rift lake in the world and the world's largest freshwater lake by volume, containing 23,615.39 km3 (5,670 cu mi) of water, or 22–23% of the world's fresh surface water. That is more than all of the North American Great Lakes combined. It is also the world's oldest lake at 25–30 million years, and among the clearest.

Siberian Plateau

Central Siberian Plateau, vast upland area, north-central Siberia, Russia. The plateau occupies an area of 600,000 square miles (1,500,000 square km). The climate is continental with short warm summers and long and severely cold winters. Most of the territory is taiga, covered with conifer forests. Known geologically as the Siberian Traps, mineral resources here are very rich and include coal, iron ore, gold, platinum, diamonds and natural gas.

Chersky Range

Chersky Range, is a mountain range running northwest to southeast through the Sakha republic and Magadan oblast (province), Russia. The range, extending more than 900 miles (1,500 km), forms a part of the extensive Verkhoyansk mountain system and comprises a series of highly dissected parallel ranges with several peaks about 10,000 feet (3,000 metres) above sea level

Stanovoy Range

The Stanovoy Range is a mountain range located in the Sakha Republic and Amur Oblast, Far Eastern Federal District. It is also known as Sükebayatur and Sükhbaatar in Mongolian, or the Stanovoy Mountains or Outer Khingan Range in English.

Kolyma Mountains

The Kolyma Mountains or Kolyma Upland, is a system of mountain ranges in northeastern Siberia, lying mostly within the Magadan Oblast, along the shores of the Sea of Okhotsk in the Kolyma region. It constitutes the watershed between the basins of Kolyma River and of the Sea of Okhotsk / Pacific Ocean.

Verkhoyansk Range

The Verkhoyansk Range is a mountain range in the Sakha Republic, Russia near the settlement of Verkhoyansk, well-known for its frigid climate. It is part of the East Siberian Mountains. The range lies just west of the boundary of the Eurasian and the North American tectonic plates.

Black Sea

The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine. The Black Sea is an important year-round transportation artery, linking the eastern European countries with world markets.

Caspian Sea

The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, often described as the world's largest lake and sometimes referred to as a full-fledged sea. The Caspian Sea is home to a wide range of species and is famous for its caviar and oil industries. Pollution from the oil industry and dams on rivers that drain into it have harmed its ecology. It is predicted that during the 21st century, the depth of the sea will decrease by 9–18 m (30–60 ft) due to global warming and the process of desertification, leading to an ecocide.

Ural Mountains

The Ural Mountains, or simply the Urals, are a mountain range in Eurasia that runs north–south mostly through the Russian Federation, from the coast of the Arctic Ocean to the river Ural and northwestern Kazakhstan. The mountain range forms part of the conventional boundary between the continents of Europe and Asia, marking the separation between European Russia and Siberia.