Lake · Russia
Lake Baikal
Lake Baikal in Siberia is the deepest and oldest lake in the world. It holds more fresh water than any other lake – about a fifth of all the fresh water on the Earth's surface.
Picture credit: Jason Rogers (CC BY 2.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is Lake Baikal?
Countries on its shores: Russia.
Middle of the lake: 53.50° N, 108.00° E
The story behind it
Lake Baikal is 636 km long, and at its deepest point the bottom lies 1 642 metres below the surface. It formed about 25 to 30 million years ago, which makes it the oldest lake on Earth. Up to 330 rivers flow in, but only one, the Angara, flows out. The water is so clear that in winter you can see 30 to 40 metres down through it. From about January to May the lake is covered with ice. Many animals live only here: the Baikal seal, or nerpa, the only seal that lives in fresh water; the omul, a kind of whitefish; and the golomyanka, which lives deeper down than any other freshwater fish. The largest island is Olkhon. Since 1996 Lake Baikal has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Find it on the globe
Lake Baikal is there as a small blue dot with its name, right on the water. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.
It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.
Questions children ask
How big is Lake Baikal?
Lake Baikal covers about 31 700 km² and is 636 km long. Because it is so deep, it holds about 23 600 km³ of water, more than any other freshwater lake.
How old is Lake Baikal?
Lake Baikal is about 25 to 30 million years old, older than any other lake on Earth. Over this long time many animals developed here that live nowhere else.
Does Lake Baikal freeze in winter?
Yes, from about January to May the lake is covered with ice. The water is so clear that you can look 30 to 40 metres down into it in winter.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
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