Tyumen is the first Russian settlement to be established east of the Urals. It was founded in 1586 by Yermak’s Cossacks on the River Tura on the site of the settlement of Chingi-Tura of the conquered Siberia Khanate. The new city aided Russian expansion into Siberia and  became an important stop on the trade route to Central Asia. Its importance only increased with the opening of the Trans-Siberian Railway in 1885. Today the city is a major industrial and economic centre - especially in terms of the oil and gas industry.