Tura (river)

Tura Dolgaya (Russian: Долгая)
The Tura near Verkhoturye
Tura watershed
Native name	Тура́ (Russian)
Location
Country	Russia
Cities	Verkhnyaya Tura, Nizhnyaya Tura, Verkhoturye, Turinsk, Tyumen
Physical characteristics
Source	Ural Mountains
• location	Khrebet-Ural'skii, Sverdlovsk Oblast
• coordinates	58°24′32″N 59°21′32″E
• elevation	405 m (1,329 ft)
Mouth	Tobol
• location	Tarkhany, Tyumen Oblast
• coordinates	57°12′20″N 66°57′10″E
• elevation	44 m (144 ft)
Length	1,030 km (640 mi)
Basin size	80,400 km2 (31,000 sq mi)
Basin features
Progression	Tobol→ Irtysh→ Ob→ Kara Sea
Tributaries
• left	Is
• right	Salda, Tagil, Nitsa, Pyshma

The Tura (Russian: Тура́), also known as Dolgaya (Long River, Russian: Долгая) is a historically important Siberian river which flows eastward from the central Ural Mountains into the Tobol, a part of the Ob basin. The main town on it is Tyumen.

Description

From about 1600 to 1750 the Tura was the main entry point into Siberia. Most people and goods entering or leaving passed through the customs house at Verkhoturye. There are a number of mining towns in the upper Tura basin.

Geography

It is located in the Sverdlovsk Oblast and Tyumen Oblast in Russia. It is 1,030 kilometres (640 mi) long with a drainage basin of 80,400 square kilometres (31,000 sq mi). The Tura is navigable within 753 kilometres (468 mi) of its mouth. It freezes up in late October through November and stays under the ice until April or the first half of May.

The Tura basin is bounded on the west by the Ural Mountains with the city of Perm, on the north by the Tavda basin, on the east by the Tobol with the city of Tobolsk and on the south by the Iset basin with the city of Yekaterinburg.

The Tura flows north through Verkhnyaya Tura and Nizhnyaya Tura, receives an east-flowing river from the mining town of Kachkanar, flows east past Verkhoturye, turns east-southeast, receives the Tagil from the west, passes Turinsk, receives the east-flowing Nitsa, passes Tyumen, turns directly east, receives the east-flowing Pyshma from the south and joins the Tobol River southwest of Tobolsk.

The Tura basin is fan-shaped with the Tura on the north side and the Pyshma on the south.