Baikal is a holy place, where pilgrims from remote parts of the world come to feel excitement and delight, fill the soul with elation.

Local people have always been thrilled by the mystical power of the lake. For them it is not just 23 thousand cubic kilometers of water; they think it is alive, it is magician or a heeler that should not be irritated or vexed. They never call Baikal a lake, it is a sea or an Old Man, or just He.

Origin of the name

Different nations that inhabited the shores of the lake used their own name for it. Chinese in their chronicles called it Tengis or Tengis-Dalai, Mongolians and Buryats called it Baigal-Dalai which could be interpreted as “big water”. Several scientists have attempted to locate a definitive origin to the name, Baikal. One of the most commonly accepted versions is that Baikal is a Turkic in origin and means reach lake, bai-reach, and kool-lake.

Age

Baikal is the oldest lake of the world, its age it defined by the scientists as 25 million years. Lake’s usual life-time is 10—15 million years, after that period they get filled with sediment and disappear. Baikal does not have any of the features of aging. On the contrary, geophysicists think that Baikal is a very young ocean. Its banks extend for two centimeters each year.

Depth and surface

At 1.637 meters, nearly a mile deep, it is without doubt the world’s deepest lake.

Compared to the other lakes of the world, Lake Baikal is enormous. Baikal’s volume is grater than any other freshwater lake and makes up to approximately 20 percent of the world’s surface fresh water.

Aquatic and animal life of the lake is reach, despite Baikal’s cold water and low winter’s temperatures, 2/3 out of 2635 known species are endemics. In December of 1996 The Lake Baikal has been announced by UNESCO as a world’s natural treasure.