Siberia's Lake Baikal is not your average lake. Lake Baikal is the World's largest freshwater lake and the world's deepest and oldest lake. In 1996 this lake was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
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Lake Baikal holds 49 miles (78.8 kilometers) wide and 395 miles (635 kilometers) long, and with a history that dates back 25 million years, it's also Earth's oldest. Lake Baikal also is home to more than 3,700 different species, many of which are only found in the Baikal region. #WorldLargest
Lake Baikal is located in southern Russia, near the border of Mongolia. Its depth of 5,300 feet makes it the world's deepest lake. The second-deepest lake, Lake Tanganyika in east Africa, is 4,710 feet deep by comparison. Crater Lake, the deepest lake in the U.S., is 1,900 feet (579 meters) deep. Lake Baikal's 12,200-square-mile (31,597-square-kilometer) size also makes it Earth's largest. That size, by the way, makes it comparable in volume to the entire Amazon basin. For scale, it reportedly takes about 330 years for one water molecule to flow from inlet to inlet. #WorldLargest
Lake Baikal is expanding at a rate of 0.7 inches (2 centimeters) every year — the same speed at which Africa and South America are drifting apart. At this speed, some scientists believe Lake Baikal is actually an ocean in the making.#WorldLongest #WorldDeepest
Of Lake Baikal's 27 islands, the largest is Olkhon, at 280 square miles (725 square kilometers).
Olkhon has its own lake, mountains and a population of 1,500 residents. Locals connected to power via an underwater cable in 2005.
#WorldLongest #WorldDeepest
