The Samara is a river in Russia, left tributary of Volga. The city of Samara is located at the confluence of Volga and Samara. The river rises southwest of the southern end of the Ural Mountains close to the middle Ural River near the town of Orenburg. It then flows west or west northwest to meet the hairpin bend of the Volga at the town of Samara. It was the traditional southern boundary of the Bashkir country. On the south side was the Nogai Horde, who were replaced by the Kalmyks around 1630. From 1735-1740 the Orenburg Line of forts ran along the Samara.