Sterlitamak is a city in Bashkiria, the center of the Sterlitamak District, 130 km to the South of Ufa. It is located at the western foot of South Ural mountains. It has a pier on the left bank of Belaya River, at the confluence of rivers Ashkadar and Sterlya into it and a railway station. Its population makes 273.4 thousand people (as of 2010).

Till 1766 it was known as the post station Sterlitamaksky Yam. With the development of salt trade it became a warehouse and transit point (Ashkadar pier) on the way to Iletsky Zashchita (modern Sol-Iletsk town) for salt transportation down the Belaya River to Kama and Volga.

It became a city in 1781. In 1919-22 it was the capital of the Bashkir ASSR. After discovery of an oil field near Ishimbay in 1932 Sterlitamak became one of the strong points of development of oil fields.

Sterlitamak is a large center of chemical industry and mechanical engineering.

Its main sight is the building of the former Assembly of Land, nowadays the city department of social security; it is a graceful building, which has remained from the pre-revolutionary Sterlitamak.

Read more about Bashkiria...