Sverdlovsk Oblast

Sverdlovsk Oblast (Russian: Свердло́вская область sveerd-LOHV-skuh-yuh OH-blust') is a region in Russia's Urals Region. Set right in the middle of the Urals region, Sverdlovsk Oblast borders seven other regions; Khantia-Mansia to the northeast, Tyumen Oblast to the east, Kurgan Oblast to the southeast, Chelyabinsk Oblast to the south, Bashkortostan to the southwest, Perm Krai to the west, and the Komi Republic to the northwest.

Cities

• 1 Yekaterinburg — Russia's 3-4th largest city and the principal destination in the Urals
• 2 Irbit — major producer of heavy motorcycles and home to the annual "Irbit Bike Show" and motorcross
• 3 Nevyansk — formerly a closed town, home to the "leaning tower of Nevyansk" and a neoclassical cathedral
• 4 Nizhny Tagil — a big industrial city that hosts a few major international arms and industrial expos
• 5 Pervouralsk — site of the monument marking the boundary between Europe and Asia
• 6 Sysert — small town near Lake Talkov, a favorite place of relaxation for Sverdlovsk locals and the site of the Lake Talkov Monument
• 7 Verkhoturye — one of the oldest Russian towns east of the Urals, with a Kremlin

Other destinations

• Pripyshmenskie Bory National Park

Understand

Sverdlovsk Oblast is the population center of the Urals and the most populous oblast in Asian Russia.

The remote mountainous north of the oblast was the scene of the infamous Dyatlov Pass Incident, in which nine hikers mysteriously died in 1959 with unusual deformities in some of the bodies found weeks later.