Ob River, Novosibirsk, Siberia, Russia

Ob River (Обь) is a river in Siberia, Russia. One of the greatest rivers of Asia, the Ob flows north and west across western Siberia in a twisting diagonal from its sources in the Altai Mountains to its outlet through the Gulf of Ob into the Kara Sea of the Arctic Ocean. It is a major transportation artery, crossing territory at the heart of Russia that is extraordinarily varied in its physical environment and population. Even allowing for the barrenness of much of the region surrounding the lower course of the river and the ice-clogged waters into which it discharges, the Ob drains a region of great economic potential. The Ob proper is formed by the junction of the Biya and Katun rivers, in the foothills of the Siberian sector of the Altai, from which it has a course of 2,268 miles (3,650 km). If, however, the Irtysh River is regarded as part of the main course rather than as the Ob’s major tributary, the maximum length, from the source of the Black (Chorny) Irtysh in China’s sector of the Altai, is 3,362