The Kurgan Region is located in Zauralye, which literally means ‘Beyond the Urals’ in the basin of the River Tobol. It borders the Chelyabinsk Region, Sverdlovsk Region, Tyumen Region and Kazakhstan.

Its administrative centre is Kurgan, which gets its name from the Russian word for ‘burial mound’. The region’s Medvezhye Ozero, close to the city of Petukhovo, is a popular balneological resort. Its high concentration of salt has led it to being called the Dead Sea of the Kurgan Region.