In the south of Eastern Siberia, where the Irkutsk region borders on the Buryat Republic, there is the deepest lake on Earth - Baikal. Only the average depth of the reservoir is 744 meters, while the maximum is 1642! But this is far from its only advantage and remarkable feature.
Baikal is a unique phenomenon of its kind on planet Earth. This is the largest natural reservoir of the purest fresh water, which makes up one fifth of all the world's reserves and nine tenths of Russia's. The deepest lake on earth is larger than all of the North American Great Lakes combined. It stores 23 thousand cubic meters of fresh water. If water suddenly disappeared from Baikal in an incomprehensible way, it would take the rivers from all over our planet a whole year to fill it up again.
Baikal is as transparent as glass, and a white disk with a diameter of 20 centimeters can be seen at a depth of more than 50 meters! Three hundred rivers flow into the deepest lake inEarth, and only one flows out - the majestic Angara.
Mountain ranges bordered the basin in which Baikal is located. Primorsky and Baikal surround its northwestern part, Barguzinsky - northeast, and from the southeast - Khamar-Dabansky ridge. The lake is famous for its islands. The largest among them is Olkhon, the heart of Lake Baikal.
Not to see the deepest lake on Earth, whose age is about 25 million years, means not to let a miracle happen in life. Two thirds of the flora and fauna of Baikal are endemic. Nerpa, the Baikal seal, you will not find anywhere else! And there are more clear days on Lake Baikal than in the resort of Sochi. Beaches and lagoons, sand dunes and foggy swamps, taiga and steppes, endless meadows and snow-white mountain ranges - this coastal world is unique!
The Peschanaya Bay has the warmest Baikal water. It is located on the western shore of the lake between the Cape Kharginsky and the Middle Chomuty. Only here you can see majestic pines and larches on “stilts” that are frightening from habit. Due to the fact that the sandy soil is constantly blown out from under the trees, their roots are exposed.
Baikal omul, whitefish, sturgeon, lenok, grayling, taimen… The list of names of fish found in the sacred lake sounds like music for musicians to fishermen.
Baikal is beautiful at any time of the year. Winter gavehim a unique range of northern colors. The sun's rays, reflected from the ice surface and refracted, shimmer with an iridescent spectrum. The thickness of the ice shell that fetters the lake during the cold months reaches a meter or more, although it seems thin due to the pebbles visible at the bottom of Baikal. But this is an illusion! The ice is very strong and can withstand a train. With the beginning of spring, the ice opens and breaks with a roar, cracking continuously, and closer to summer, the wind and waves throw transparent blocks onto the shore, forming landscapes of unsurpassed beauty.
Here it is, the deepest lake on Earth! It is not surprising that UNESCO did not ignore Baikal. The lake is listed as a World Heritage Site. More than three hundred thousand tourists, scientists and researchers from all over the world annually come to see and experience the extraordinary miracle created by nature - Baikal!
