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Siberia, Buryatia, Lake Baikal.
Lake Baikal is a special treasure among all the beauty of Siberia’s nature. It is one of the greatest mysteries nature has gifted us with, and even nowadays it cannot be fully unraveled. To date, scientists argue about the genesis of Baikal and whether it was the result of the inevitable drifting of tectonic plates or of a catastrophic collapse in the earth’s crust. Baikal has a maximum depth of 1,641 meters, making it the deepest lake on earth. This gigantic reservoir contains around 23,000 cubic kilometers (or 22% of the world’s freshwater resources) of crystal clear fresh water with low mineral contents but highly saturated with oxygen. Baikal is thus the largest fresh surface water reservoir on earth. The lake is home to 26 rocky islands – the largest of them being Olkhon Island. The total length of its coastline amounts to nearly 2,100 kilometers. Mother Earth is wise; she has hidden the last living well of our planet in the center of Siberia, far away from her sometimes unwise children.
Lined with crystalline rocks, the shores, slopes and bottom of the lake contribute to preserve the water’s purity. Numerous rivers, streams and brooks carve their way through the granite basement into the lake. Baikal has 336 tributaries, both large and small. Among the largest ones are the Selenga, Upper Angara, Barguzin, Turka, and Sneshnaya. In contrast, there is only one outflowing river: the powerful and impulsive Angara River, which flows into the Yenisei River. Lake Baikal is astounding in its beauty and unique biodiversity. It is estimated that around 60% of the known 2630 animal and plant species are endemic – that is to say that they cannot be found anywhere else in the world. Among them are the golomyanka and omul fish, as well as the famous Bakail seal (nerpa). Almost like a huge laboratory, here Mother Earth has created a harmonious world full of wonders, with taiga and tundra, as well as quasi-desert and rocky steppe vegetation in one place. Diverse flora and fauna crystal clear water, and breathtaking panoramas – Lake Baikal offers all of this for us and our descendants. Local, indigenous people believe Lake Baikal to be sacred, and many of them even regard it not as a lake but as a reason-endowed, wise creature. There are many legends and beliefs originating from Baikal. The native Buryats will not even throw a stone from its shores into the water withouthaving a reason for doing so. “Baikal placed this stone with its waves on this very spot, and this means that it should lie there.” Even the first Russians in this area understood and felt the lake’s holiness.
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Baikal Adventures – travel and tours to Baikal in Siberia, tour
information Lake Baikal, Buryatia, Mongolia, Siberia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Siberia,
covering a large part of Russia’s territory in Asia, stretches from
the Ural Mountains in the West to the mountain ranges of the Pacific watershed
in the East, and from the shores of the Arctic Ocean in the North to the
hilly steppes of Kazakhstan and the Mongolian border in the South. The
total area of Siberia is around 10 million square kilometers. Western
and Eastern Siberia are most famous for their astonishing nature and wildlife.
The territory of Siberia has been populated since the Stone Age. People
moved along the Pacific coast to America and to the Arctic Ocean.
Buryatia
is one of the most beautiful regions of East Siberia, It combines the
splendor and power of Lake Baikal with endless taiga, large rivers and
snow-covered peaks of the Sayan Mountain Range. It borders to the south
on Mongolia and to the southwest on the Republic of Tuva. The Republic
of Buryatia occupies around 350,000 square kilometers and has a population
of 1 million. 
It
took millions of years to create this miraculous source of ice-clear water.
Lake Baikal is around 25 million years old, an extraordinarily great age
for a lake. Generally, lakes are considered to be old by the age of 20,000
years. However, Lake Baikalhas borne its age well, and there is no evidence
for its disappearing from the Earth as many other lakes have done. On
the contrary, recent research has confirmed that Lake Baikal is in the
embryonic state of an emerging ocean; its shores are drifting apart with
a speed of 2 cm per year, which is comparable to the continental drifting
of Africa and South America.