Tura (river)

The Tura near Verkhoturye

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

From about 1600 to 1750 the Tura River 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.

It is located in the Sverdlovsk Oblast and Tyumen Oblast in Russia. It is 1030 km long with a drainage basin is 80,400 km². The Tura River is navigable within 753 km from its mouth. It freezes up in late October - November and stays under the ice until April - 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 River basin, on the east by the Tobol River with the city of Tobolsk and on the south by the Iset River basin with the city of Yekaterinburg.

The Tura in the Ob Basin

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 River from the east, passes Turinsk, receives the east-flowing Nitsa River, passes Tyumen, turns directly east, receives the east-flowing Pyshma River from the south and joins the Tobol River about 75 kilometers above Tobolsk. The Tura basin is fan-shaped with the Tura on the north side and the Pyshma on the south.