Interesting facts about Lake Baikal

Lake Baikal is truly unique. In its waters and on its shores there is a huge quantity of various living creatures, and some species are not found anywhere else on the planet. Baikal is so large that many call it a sea, and, in truth, this lake is much more like the sea than some “real” seas.

The exact age of Lake Baikal is unknown, but scientists claim that it is one of the most ancient on the planet. A large number of endemic species that live in its waters, too, indirectly confirm this.

The Baikal is the world’s largest reservoir of fresh water. It contains a fifth of all the reserves of our planet.

The deepest lake on Earth is Baikal, its depth is 1642 meters. This roughly equals the five Eiffel Towers, stacked on top of each other.

The waters of Lake Baikal are always cold, so that almost no one bathes even on warm summer days.

The famous Hollywood director James Cameron, the author of “Titanic”, “Terminator” and “Avatar”, once celebrated his birthday on Lake Baikal.

With the onset of frost, the surface of Lake Baikal begins to freeze, but it takes about a month to completely cover it with ice.

The water in Lake Baikal is so clean that it can be drunk without preliminary cleaning.

In the waters of Lake Baikal there are more than fifty different species of fish.

On Baikal there are high waves, up to four meters high.

In the Baikal region there are earthquakes, and sometimes very strong.

No swimmer ever crossed the Baikal – its waters are very cold.

Vladimir Putin plunged into the depths of Lake Baikal in a bathyscaphe.

The name of Lake Baikal is one of the known asteroids.

There are islands on Lake Baikal, as many as twenty-two. We inhabit only one of them – the island of Olkhon.

The dimensions of Lake Baikal are greater than the territory of many states.

According to the estimations of scientists, the total mass of the fish inhabiting Baikal exceeds the mark of 150 million tons.