Due to the size of Russia, obviously the country has many larger or smaller mountain ranges. Most of these ranges are located in the eastern Siberian regions, mainly on the southern and northern part of the Asian territories of Russia.
European Russia has two major mountain chains, the Caucasus, which marks the southwestern border between Asia and Europe, and the Ural mountains, which lies on the Asia-Europe border as well. The highest point of Russia, the 5642 meters tall Mount Elbrus is located within the Caucasus range, it is also the highest point in whole Europe. The Ural mountains are considerably lower lying ranges, its highest is Mount Narodnaya, staying just below 1900 meters.
There are four major ranges on the southern side of the Russia map. The westernmost and highest of those is the Altai range, shared by Kazakhstan, China and Mongolia. The highest peak here is Belukha Mountain, with an altitude of approximately 4500 meters. Higher summits than this can only be found in Kamchatka and the Caucasus range. As we progress to the east, the mountains get gradually shorter. The next range in the row, the Sayan Mountains lie east of Lake Baikal, its highest is the so called Munku-Sardyk at around 3500 meters. On the other, eastern side of Lake Baikal, the two major ranges are Yablonoi mountains, and the Stanovoy range, both have a maximal altitude of around 2500 meters. The highest summit in the Stanovoy range is Mount Skalisty with 2467 meters in height.
The highest mountain chain in the northern part of Russia is located on the Kamchatka Peninsula. Klyuchevskaya Sopka of this range is the 13th most prominent peak of the whole planet, and the second in Russia (after Elbrus of course), with a height of 4750 meters, and a topographical prominence of 4649 meters. Unlike in the south, the northern mountain ranges of Russia get smaller as we continue towards the west. Next to the Kamchatka area, the Kolyma and Chersky ranges rise to around 3000 meters, Mount Pobeda being the highest of this region just above 3000 meters. The somewhat shorter Verkhoyansk Range lies on the eastern banks of the Lena river. On the other side of Lena, between the Yenisei and Lena rivers lie the not so tall, but huge are of the Central Siberian Plateau, covering an area of more than 3.5 million km².
