Ural (river)

From Orenburg it continues west, passing into Kazakhstan, then turning south again at Oral, and meandering through a broad flat plain until it reaches the Caspian a few kilometers below Atyrau, where it forms a fine 'digitate' (tree-like) delta.In modern Finno-Ugric, the closest surviving forms are found: "joki" (Finnish), "jogi" (Karelian), "jā" (Mansi), "ju" (Komi) – river, "jəŋk" (Khanty) – water.[8] Also, hypothetically Finno-Ugric titles may have tributaries of the Yaik River, for example Ilek (Erzya "Ilyk" – strength) and Utva (Komi "Ytva" – spring water).In the 10th-Century work De Administrando Imperio, Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus referred to the Ural River as the "Geich.In the 10th to 16th centuries, the city of Saray-Jük (or Saraichik, meaning "small Sarai") on the Ural River (now in Atyrau Province of Kazakhstan) was an important trade center on the Silk Road.After its suppression, Empress Catherine issued a decree of 15 January 1775 to rename most of the places involved in the revolt, in order to erase the memory of it.This type of delta forms naturally in the slow rivers which deliver a great deal of sediments and flow into a quiet sea.[23][24][25] Rarely, the smaller, shorter Emba River is claimed as the continental boundary,[26][27] but that pushes "Europe" much further into "Central Asian" Kazakhstan.The Ural River bridge in Orenburg is even labeled with permanent monuments carved with the word "Europe" on one side, "Asia" on the other.About 200 kilometres (120 mi) from the mouth there is a dangerous spot for shipping called Kruglovskaya prorva (Russian: Кругловская прорва meaning Kruglovsk abyss).[2] They host many endemic and endangered species, such as great white pelican, Dalmatian pelican, pygmy cormorant, cattle egret, little egret, greater flamingo, white-headed duck, ferruginous duck, Eurasian spoonbill, glossy ibis, houbara bustard, great black-headed gull, slender-billed gull, squacco heron, common crane, demoiselle crane, slender-billed curlew, black stork, red-breasted goose, lesser white-fronted goose, lesser kestrel, whooper swan, tundra swan, osprey, pallid harrier, short-toed eagle and many others.Cattle egret is observed since 1990 between April and September (as most other migratory birds in this area), with the total population of several dozen couples.[12] Ural River is also important for many fish species of the Caspian Sea which visit its delta and migrate upstream for spawning.Key species are raccoon dog, muskrat (appeared recently), European hare, house mouse, brown rat, and wild boar.Others include elk, fox, wolf, dwarf fat-tailed jerboa, great gerbil, northern mole vole and saiga antelope.[18][33] Fishery is well developed; the commercial fish species include sturgeon, perch, herring, bream, carp and catfish.