Baikal is the deepest lakes in the world: its average depth is more than 730 meters
and the deepest point is 1642 meters.
The square size of the water-table is almost
32 thousand square kilometers — Baikal is the sixth biggest lakes in the world.
Belgium and the Netherlands could fit in it.
In 1996 the Lake was inscripted as the UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Baikal is the biggest fresh water basin and holds 20% of the worlds amount.
Baikal has a tectonic origin, scientists still can't tell the reason of its appearance.
It is known that Baikal is at least 25 million years old and this is unique, because most
lakes exist only 15 thousand years and afterwards are filled with alluvium.
The clean water of Baikal allows us to see 40 meters deep.
From space the bottom surface can be seen 500 meters deep.
The locals consider this water good for drinking and use it without filtering.
The first Russian expeditors of Siberia called Baikal by its Evenki name "Lamu" ("The Sea").
The present name originates to the Turkic word "Bai-Khul" – "Rich Sea".
Another meaning of the name has a legendary origin.
According to the stories of the Buryat peoples, there was once an earthquake in these places.
Fire came out of the cracked ground and burned everything in its way.
Gods didn't listen to the people, so they addressed the elemental directly: "Bai Ghal!"
("Fire, Stop!").
And a miracle happened: the cracks started filling with clear water.
Baikal is inhabited with 2600 animal species and subspecies and half of them are endemics,
which means they can be found only here.
The Lake has a large number and wide variety of inhabitants due to the big amount of oxygen
in all its water levels.
Despite the fact that Baikal is a lake, powerful storms with 5 meters high waves happen here.
Baikal has many riddles.
They say that sometimes shadows of horse riders can be seen through the fog.
The ghostly figures ride very fast and nobody can explain this phenomena.
According to the legends, this is the army of a cruel ruler Hasan Choson that drowned
in the Lake.
Choson wanted to conquer the Evenki tribes that lived near Baikal and in order to take
a short-cut he ordered his army to go straight over the ice.
But the ice cracked and the soldiers drowned.
So, up to this day the warriors can't find peace and are still trying to reach the other
side of the Lake.
We didn't encounter any riders.
Maybe because in winter there was no fog on the Lake.
Nobody was able to swim the Lake across: the average water temperature even in Summer is
not more than +10°C.
In winter the Lake is covered with ice 1-2 meters thick.
The cliffs on the banks grow icicles of unbelievable size.
During very cold times giant cracks appear in the ice.
They can be up to 30 km long and 3 meters wide.
Apart from giant cracks, the Lake is covered with beautiful and very diverse small cracks.
Baikal ice attracts tourists from all over the world.
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