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It is the deepest lake on the globe, going down as deep as 1,641 meters (about 5,315 feet). As a reservoir, it holds 23,000 cubic meters (some 5,500 cubic miles) of crystal-clear fresh water (22% of the overall world quantity), low-mineralized, rich in oxygen, unparalleled in quality. The shore line of Baikal is as long as 2,100 km. Mother Nature was wise. She hid from her not so wise children, in the very centre of Siberia, the planet's last natural well. It took millions of years to create the marvel — a unique natural 'factory' of crystal-clear fresh water. Baikal is known for its very old age. Being 25 million years old, it shows no sign that it may start to grow old or to disappear in the foreseeable future from the face of the Earth, as many lakes have done or are doing. On the contrary, recent research has allowed geophysicists to put forward the hypothesis that Baikal may be an ocean in the making. The theory is corroborated by the fact that the lake's shores are drifting apart from each other at a pace of 2 cm/year — in exactly the same way as the continents of Africa and South America drift apart. 'Clothed in' rocks, the shores, slopes and floor of the lake help to keep the water clean. Cutting their ways through the rocks, 336 rivers, rivulets, and streams — in swift torrents or loud waterfalls — flow into the lake. There is only one river flowing out: it is the powerful and swift Angara, flowing its crystal-clear waters into the Yenisey. |
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The water in the lake is normally dark blue; it is only in June that it may take on the tints of bright blue. The transparency of the water reaches over 40 metres. The following fact is noteworthy: the water in Baikal is fresher than in the rivers flowing into it, and its mineralization decreases as we go deeper into the lake. Researchers assume that there is a permanent powerful source of super fresh water at the floor of the lake. But the hypothesis has yet to be proved. Among the planet's lakes Baikal is well known for its rough character. In a stormy weather the waves on it may be four meters high. Baikal strikes one with its beauty, its rich fauna, and its unique features. About 2,630 species of animals and plants are found in the lake. It is established that 60 percent of them cannot be encountered anywhere else. Baikal nerpa (a fresh-water seal) and omul (whitefish) are in the list of such species. Unique to the lake is a fish called the golomyanka which gives birth to live young. Yes, Baikal is a world on its own. Like in a kind of gigantic laboratory, Nature has been making her own experiments in the place, comprehensible only to herself, thus creating a marvelous world harmonious in its way. Taiga neighbors here upon semi desert, and tundra, and stone steppes. And all the local elements — the trees and the flowers, the animals and the birds, the sunshine and the lake's depths contribute to preserving the water in the lake. Preserving it for us and our children. But if at least one of the links of that well balanced ecological system is infringed upon, then the whole of it will be ruined. The indigenous people regard Baikal as sacred, and many tend to view it as a living creature possessing reason and wisdom, not as a lake. There are a lot of Baikal-related legends and popular beliefs. An indigenous Buryat, for instance, will not take liberties with aimlessly throwing a pebble into the lake: "Baikal has placed it here with a wave, so let it remain where it is!" People use various poetical names to refer to Baikal. There are some who call it "the blue heart of Siberia"; others refer to it as "a blue-sky fragment thrown into the taiga"; still others consider it to be an unparalleled natural laboratory, a window that overlooks the past and the future, a world on its own that can help solve the riddles of life. The local dwellers firmly believe that Baikal's water can heal not only one's body, but one's soul, too. Leave behind the bustle and routine ways of city life, and get rid of all your stresses at the shores of the Sacred Lake! Discover for yourself a new — your own — view of Baikal, the one you will remember again and again.
By Alexandra Balashova (Moscow today & tomorrow) |
Everyone who has once visited its
shores, and has spent at least a few moments alone with its
captivating waves, agrees on this: Baikal is beautiful and
unparalleled. Even among Siberia's various natural beauties and
resources Lake Baikal is something special. It is one of the
greatest natural riddles that has not yet been solved. The dispute
about Baikal's origins still rages: did it appear resulting from
inevitable slow transformations or a huge cataclysm and a gap in the
Earth's crust?