Yekaterinburg is the 4th largest city in Russia after Moscow, Saint Petersburg (Russia)|Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk and is the capital of the Urals region. It was founded in 1723 by Peter the Great as the metallurgical factory and by the 20th century it had become one of Russia's largest and most important financial, industrial and cultural centers. Between 1924 and 1991, the town was known as '''Sverdlovsk''' (??????????). The city is often said to be situated on the border of Europe and Asia (on the Asian side) and (at least) three symbolic monuments of this can be found near the city. http://wikitravel.org/en/Yekaterinburg