World Lakes

Lake Baikal, which is located in Russia, is one of the biggest lakes in the world. At 1,637 meters, Lake Baikal is the deepest lake in the world and with a volume 23,000 km? it holds the largest body of fresh water on earth, approximately twenty percent of the world's total surface fresh water. Lake Baikal was formed in an ancient rift valley and therefore is long and crescent-shaped with a surface area (31,500 km?). Baikal is home to more than 1,700 species of plants and animals, two thirds of which can be found nowhere else in the world and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996. Also, it is the oldest lake and it is more that 25 million years old! Baikal is so big, that it has more water that all lake in the United States combined together. It even has it's own island - Olkhon.

Due to it's location - Northern Siberia, it was very hard to study it before the Trans-Siberian railway was built. The lake is completely surrounded by mountains. The Baikal Mountains on the north shore and the taiga are technically protected as a national park. It contains 22 islands; the largest, Olkhon, is 72 kilometers long. The lake is fed by as many as three hundred and thirty inflowing rivers. The six main ones are the Selenga River (the source of some of Lake Baikal's pollution), the Chikoy River, the Khilokh, the Uda River, the Barguzin River, and the Upper Angara River. It is drained through a single outlet, the Angara River.

Although there were muted protests, a wood pulp and cellulose processing plant was built at the south end of the lake (at Baykalsk). The plant still pours industrial effluent into Baikal's waters. The overall impacts of watershed pollution on Baikal and similar watersheds are studied annually by the Tahoe-Baikal Institute, an exchange program between U.S., Russian, and Mongolian scientists and university graduate students started in 1990.

Lake Baikal hosts 1,085 species of plants and 1,550 species and varieties of animals. Over 80% of animals are endemic. The Baikal Seal or nerpa, is found throughout Lake Baikal. It is one of the only entirely freshwater seal species in the world. Perhaps the most important local species is the omul, a smallish endemic salmonid. It is caught, smoked, and sold widely in markets around the lake. But it's very hard to find some of those things not only outside Russia, but even Baikal itself.

The lake called "the Pearl of Siberia" drew investors from the tourist industry since energy revenues sparked an economic boom. Viktor Grigorov's Grand Baikal in Irkutsk is one of the investors who planned to build three hotels creating 570 jobs. In 2007, the Russian government declared the Baikal region a special economic zone. The popular resort of Listvyanka has a seven-story Hotel Mayak. Baikal is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Rosatom plans to build a laboratory in Baikal, in conjunction with an international uranium plant and to invest $2.5bn in the region and create 2,000 jobs in the city of Angarsk.

Baikal is also a very mysterious place. The legends say that many strange things happen there. Monsters, like in Lohness, mermaids, like in the Black Sea, ghosts and spirits are seen there all the time. UFO's are a common thing there. Shamans say, that it is a sacred place and people, who are far from the spirit world should stay away from Baikal at night.

Still, people go there and it is a very popular resort. Untouched nature, clean water and a great atmosphere - all that can be found in the heart of Siberia - Baikal!