In the <placeName xmlns="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0" ref="https://edition-humboldt.de/H0009659 https://www.geonames.org/1488441">Urals</placeName>, too, Humboldt’s orography extended apace with the Empire, expressing ambitions far beyond “the border of human civilization” where some maps went blank. In Humboldt’s map of <hi xmlns="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0" rendition="#i">“</hi>Chaines de montagnes et volcans de l’<placeName xmlns="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0" ref="https://edition-humboldt.de/H0015014 https://www.geonames.org/7729893">Asie Centrale</placeName>,” <placeName xmlns="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0" ref="https://edition-humboldt.de/H0010689 https://www.geonames.org/2017370">Russia</placeName>’s great meridian range stretches far beyond the Orenburg Line, cutting through the <hi xmlns="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0" rendition="#i">Petite Horde des Kirghiz</hi> (Figure 3). Russia’s southern advance was not far from Humboldt’s mind when he took up the task, offered by the Tsar’s Finance Minister, <persName xmlns="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0" ref="https://edition-humboldt.de/H0012872 http://d-nb.info/gnd/118666878">Georg Cancrin</persName>, to carry out a mineral survey with particular focus on platinum in the <placeName xmlns="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0" ref="https://edition-humboldt.de/H0020292 https://www.geonames.org/466003">south Ural</placeName> region. Writing to Cancrin in 1827, he dreamt of the “delightful prospect” of “the Urals and the <hi xmlns="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0" rendition="#i">soon-to-be-Russian</hi> <placeName xmlns="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0" ref="https://edition-humboldt.de/H0002518 https://www.geonames.org/325164">Ararat</placeName>” (emphasis added), referring to the Armenian mountain recently claimed for the Russian Emperor in the final Russo-Persian conflict over the <placeName xmlns="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0" ref="https://edition-humboldt.de/H0000394 https://www.geonames.org/573081">Caucasus</placeName>.<note xmlns="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0" place="foot" xml:id="ftn44" n="44"> Humboldt to Cancrin, <placeName ref="https://edition-humboldt.de/H0005221 https://www.geonames.org/2950159">Berlin</placeName>, 19 November 1827, in <bibl corresp="https://edition-humboldt.de/RQ7INXBQ">Humboldt 2009a</bibl>, 76.</note> The southern extent of the Urals was ill-defined amongst geographers because it was disputed amongst nations. The fortification of the <placeName xmlns="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0" ref="https://edition-humboldt.de/H0007860 https://www.geonames.org/514734">Orsk</placeName> jasper quarry and surveillance of saltworks at <placeName xmlns="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0" ref="https://edition-humboldt.de/H0006665 https://www.geonames.org/491019">Ileckaya Zaščita</placeName> made this clear.<note xmlns="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0" place="foot" xml:id="ftn45" n="45"> Orsk and Ileckaya Zaščita are two in a long list of fortified industrial sites in Humboldt’s itinerary. On the history of the militarized “Lines” Humboldt circuited, see <bibl corresp="https://edition-humboldt.de/RQ7INXBQ">Humboldt 2009a</bibl>, 162, nt. 12. </note>