Nizhniy Tagil

City in Sverdlovsk oblast (region) of the Russian Federation, on the eastern slopes of the central Urals in western Siberia; population (1996 est) 407,000. Located 135 km/84 mi north of Yekaterinburg, Nizhniy Tagil is one of the chief metallurgical and engineering centres of the Russian Federation, with a vast iron and steel works, a railway rolling-stock factory, and coking and chemical plants. Iron and copper ores and gold are mined nearby, and the city is surrounded by a number of smaller iron- and copper-producing towns. Natural gas is piped from the surrounding district.

Nizhniy Tagil was founded in 1725 as an iron foundry. The first experimental railway in Russia was built here in 1834. The city has a complex of museums devoted to the history of mining and other aspects of industrial archaeology.