Visim Nature Reserve

Visim Nature Reserve is a Russian 'zapovednik' protecting an area of southern taiga in the low Middle Ural Mountains. In 2001, it was named a UNESCO MAB Biosphere Reserve. It is named for the ancient village of Visim, which was home to the Russian writer Dmitry Mamin-Sibiryak, who wrote about rural life in the Urals. Most of the reserve is located on its western slope in the headwaters of the Sulёm River, a right tributary of the Chusovoi River, part of the vast Volga-Kama basin. Part, however is on the eastern slope in the Ob River watershed. The reserve thus straddles the Europe-Asia continental divide: water from the reserve flows into both the Caspian Sea through the Volga River, and the Kara Sea through the Ob River. The reserve is situated in the Kirovgrad District of Sverdlovsk Oblast, about 100 km northwest of Yekaterinburg. ()