upland region running north-south, about midway between St. Petersburg and Moscow, Russia. The hills are a northward extension of the Central Russian Upland. The ridge is overlain by deposited glacial materials in the form of terminal moraines and other detritus. The Valdai Hills reach a height, near Vyshny Volochok, of 1,125 feet (343 m). Toward the west the hills decline steeply toward the Lake Ilmen lowland, but there is no distinct boundary on the east.

The uplands form the watershed between the basins of the Volga and Western Dvina rivers and the Ilmen plain; in the Middle Ages they were an important portage region between the rivers. At Vyshny Volochok the first canal in Russia was built, in 1708.