Kurgan is the Russian city, situated to the south of the West Siberian plain (193 m high). There are more than 400 rivers and 3 thousand lakes. The main rivers here are the Tobol and its tributary Iset. Such lakes as Gorkoye and Medvezhiye are valued for their health resorts. The climate is distinctly continental. Nature of Kurgan astonishes at its diversity. The southern areas that earlier were steppe nowadays are almost ploughed up or used as pastures. There are elks, roes, wolves, foxes, badgers, hares, squirrels, etc. Birds are as follows: ducks, geese, ptarmigans and black-cocks. In pond musk-rats canbe found. The city was founded in 1782. Kurgan village that arose at the border of the Russian state quickly turned into a military fortress designed against attacks of nomads. In the middle of XVIII century it had 3 fortification lines, about a thousand defenders and 28 cannons. The garrison of the fortress was the largest in the Tobol region. Orthodoxy and Islam have peacefully coexisted here for more than four hundred years now. Kurgan is a large industrial and cultural centre of Ural. The machine-building industry is basically developed here. The Kurgan State University comprises 11 faculties. Besides there are the Agricultural Academy and the Military Institute of the Federal Frontier Service of the Russian Federation.