Ust'-Kamenogorsk Shyghys Qazaqstan Kazakhstan

Russian Emperor Peter the Great has sent a military expedition headed by major Ivan Vasilievich Likharev in the search of gold.

Likharev’s expedition has traveled up the Irtysh river to Zaysan Lake in 1720.

Here, at the confluence of the Ulba and the Irtysh rivers in the foothills of the Rudnyy Altai Mountain, the new trading post and fort ordered by Peter is established—the Ust-Kamennaya Fortress, the very southern end of the Irtysh line.