Kryvyy Rih [key], Rus. Krivoy Rog, city (1989 pop. 713,000), SE Ukraine, at the confluence of the Inhulets and Saksagan rivers. It is a rail junction, an industrial center, and a metallurgical and coking center of one of the world's richest iron-mining regions. The city extends 20 mi (32 km) in a narrow belt paralleling the iron ore deposits. Burial mounds in the area indicate that Scythians inhabited it and used the iron deposits. Founded in the 17th cent. by Zaporizhzhya Cossacks, the city received its name (Crooked Horn) because of the shape of the iron-mining area. Kryvyy Rih's industrial growth dates from 1881, when French, Belgian, and other foreign interests founded a mining syndicate. The city has mining and pedagogical institutes.
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