Orsk, Industrial city in Orenburg Oblast, Russia
Orsk is an industrial city in Orenburg Oblast, Russia, that sits on both banks of the Ural River. The settlement lies at roughly 200 meters elevation and marks the natural boundary between Europe and Asia.
The settlement was founded in 1735 as a military fortress named Orenburg to secure Russian expansion into the southern Ural region. In 1739 it received its current name when a new fortress further west took the original designation.
Residents remember Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko, who lived in exile at the local fortress between 1847 and 1848. His presence left traces in local memory and connects the town to the literary history of Eastern Europe.
The central railway station and airport make arrival straightforward, while factories for metalworking, machine building, and oil refining dot the urban area. Visitors can explore both riverbanks and experience the geographic position between two continents.
The surrounding area preserves 40 archaeological sites with settlement remains and burial grounds pointing to ancient Indo-European populations. These findings testify to settlement thousands of years before the fortress was built.
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