Transsib Attractions: Baikal Lake

Baikal is a beautiful lake located in the South-Eastern part of Siberia. It is the deepest freshwater lake on the earth and the largest reservoir of fresh surface water. Baikal is famous for unique clarity of its waters and diversity of flora and fauna. Besides, Baikal Lake has been the important holy place of Asia for many centuries.

It is especially good (and just a "must") to visit Baikal if you're taking a Trans-Siberian train. In Russia we spell Lake Baikal like "Ozero Baykal". The word "Baikal" came from Turk language. The word "bai" means "wealthy" and "kul" means "lake". So "Baikal" originally means "wealthy lake". It IS wealthy. The lake contains 20% of the world surface fresh water while the flora and fauna of the lake are mostly endemic. Baikal is so huge and enormous that locals call it sea. This "sea" is rapidly growing with the average speed of 2 cm (0.8 in) per year. Baikal is considered to be a future ocean; in several million years there will be a new great ocean all over Asia and Baikal is a starting point for this ocean. This remarkable lake is a one of Asia's holy places. Peoples through over the centuries prayed to the lake and believed in its power. You can still see at the lake the unique carvings and parts of the ritual buildings of the tribes that gone thousands years ago. Baikal serves as a boundary for two Russian provinces - Buryatia Republic (south-east shore) and Irkutskaya oblast (north-west shore). The south-western part of Baikal is more touristic, however north-eastern part is almost deserted - few inhabitants and almost no tourists.

Baikal was added to the World Heritage list by UNESCO in 1996. Baykal lies along tectonic break, that is the reason it is so deep (around 2000 meters (6300 ft), with quite possible 3300 meters (10000 ft) sediment under that), and so geologically active: the water gets churned up and the oxigen goes much more down than in any other lake on Earth. Hot springs are scattered along the coastline and some of them are used for medical treatment. Baikal is one of the oldest lakes on the earth, Baikal is considered to be 25-30 mln years old. The normal lake exists about 15.000 years and then disappears. However Baikal lake is growing with an average speed of 2 cm (0.8 in) a year. Baikal is 1637 meters (5370 feet) deep. The area of the lake is 31500 sq. km (12209 sq. mi). Baikal is one of the cleanest surface water reservoirs on earth and you can drink water right from the lake. The water is cleaned by the unique micro organisms, which cleans the 50 meters deep slice of water surface three times a year. The remarkable flora and fauna of the lake is unique. There were found around 2600 species and almost 70% of it are endemic and can be found in the area of Baikal only. There are bears, foxes, eagles, mosquitoes and all other typical forest inhabitants. The "stars" of the lake are nerpa and omul. Nerpa is world's unique freshwater seal, which can be found near the Ushkanye islands (between Olkhon island and Svyatoy Nos peninsula) and in the northern parts of Baikal. Omul is Baikal's most popular fish.