Lake Baikal

Lake Baikal (Baikal) in Siberia, Russia is the deepest lake in the world measuring 1620m deep at its deepest point. This makes it not only deep but also the oldest lake in the world estimated to be around 25 million years old. At over 636 kilometers long and 80 kilometers wide this fresh water lake holds over 20 percent of all the fresh water in the world and is second in size only to the Caspian Sea (the caspian is called a sea but is technically a lake).




To put things into perspective the lake is so big that if all the rivers in the world flowed into its basin it would take almost 1 year to fill. We all know Siberia isn’t the warmest of places so you can imagine what a phenomenal site it is when in the winter months the lake freezes over holding ice up to 115 meters thick. Now that’s a lot of ice!