South Central Siberia
Mongolia and Kazakhstan are separated by a 55km stretch of the Sino-Russian border between the Altai Republic, a federal subject of Russia, and Altay Prefecture in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China.
To the east, Tavan Bogd Uul in Bayan-Ölgii Province, Mongolia, marks the end of the Sino-Russian border.
The Altai mountains on the Russian side of the border have been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Northern South Central Siberia includes the Altai Republic, which is a 400 km projection of forested mountains which bends slightly to the west at the tip.
The eastern part of South Central Siberia, between the Kuznetsk Alatau and the Sayan Mountains, includes the steppe of the Minusinsk Depression which is the core of Khakassia.
Tuva is bordered on the south by the Tannu-Ola Mountains, which separate it from the Mongolian Great Lakes Depression, on the west by the Altai, on the northwest by the Western Sayans which separate it from the Minusinsk Depression, on the north by the Eastern Sayans and on the east by mountains on the Mongolian border.
The Yenisei River flows west here and then breaks through the Western Sayans in a long narrow gorge which contains the Sayano-Shushenskaya Dam north of the Tuva border.
To the west of South Central Siberia is the agricultural steppe of the Altai Krai with its Russian population.
Kuznetsk Basin to the west and Minusinsk basin to the east.
Altai Republic to the south, Altai Krai northwest of that and Tuva to the southeast
