The Lake Baikal in Siberia

21 August 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  7 minutes

Sunset at Lake Baikal © Emilianka/cc-by-sa-3.0

Sunset at Lake Baikal © Emilianka/cc-by-sa-3.0

Lake Baikal is a rift lake in the south of the Russian region of Siberia, between the Irkutsk Oblast to the northwest and the Buryat Republic to the southeast. Lake Baikal is the largest (by volume) freshwater lake in the world, containing roughly 20% of the world’s unfrozen surface fresh water, and at 1,642 m (5,387 ft), the deepest. It is also among the clearest of all lakes, and thought to be the world’s oldest lake at 25 million years. It is the seventh-largest lake in the world by surface area. With 23,615.39 cubic kilometres (5,700 cubic miles) of fresh water, it contains more water than that of all the Great Lakes combined.   read more…

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