The Ural Mountains form a rugged North-South spine through western Russia, stretching roughly 2,500 kilometers from the Arctic Ocean to the Ural River and northwestern Kazakhstan. Geographically, the Urals are most famous for serving as the traditional boundary between the continents of Europe and Asia. Unlike the jagged Himalayas, the Urals are relatively low and rounded due to hundreds of millions of years of erosion; their highest peak, Mount Narodnaya, reaches only 1,895 meters. The range is incredibly rich in natural resources, including iron ore, coal, and precious stones like emeralds and malachite, which fueled the industrialization of the Soviet Union. The mountains also act as a climatic barrier, causing significant differences in precipitation between the European side to the west and the Siberian side to the east.