Sakmara (river)

The Sakmara (Сакмара; Һаҡмар, Haqmar) is a river in Russia that drains the southern tip of the Ural Mountains south into the river Ural. It is 798 km long, and has a drainage basin of 30200 km2. It is a right tributary of the Ural, which it meets in Orenburg. The source of the Sakmara is in the Republic of Bashkortostan. Other towns along the Sakmara are Yuldybayevo (Bashkortostan), Kuvandyk, and the railway station Saraktash close to the Wozdwizhenskaya Fortress (Orenburg Oblast).

It rises in the southern Ural Mountains about 60 km west-southwest of Magnitogorsk and flows south through a valley with some canyon development. At Kuvandyk it swings west, leaves the mountains, and flows west parallel to the Ural River with many meanders for about 150 km (straight-line distance) before turning south to meet the Ural. Major tributaries are the Salmysh and the Bolshoy Ik, both from the north, and the latter joins the Sakmara near Saraktash.

The Sakmarian Age of the Permian Period of geological time is named for the Sakmara River.