• 1 Oct 2024
• ⌘
• 3 min read

Table Contents

• the Route
• the Sea
• the Limbo
• the Tree
• the Roots

the Route

On my transiberian trip which started on Saint Petersburg, I made a stop in Irkutsk after a 50-hour-long train ride, this stop was special, because the main aim was to visit natural place instead of the city, although at the end I also enjoy the city as well. The train arrived at night and I took bus to the hostel, the buses in Irkustk were quite different compared to the other big cities in Russia like Saint Petersburg and Moscow, You cannot pay with a card, you pay by cash to the driver or transfer to him using the phone number that is located inside the front of the van.

The Russian minibus was driving in a Siberian taiga forest, and through it sometimes you can observe Angara River on the right side. You may think that the river will end up in the Baikal, but is the opposite, the Baikal Lake is flowing to the Angara river.

After one hour of ride from the Irkutsk the van arrived to the Baikal Lake, I stop by shouting stop in Russian as that how is done in this part of Russia as they don’t have STOP buttons.

the Sea

Baikal compared to the North American Great Lakes

Located in the heart of Siberia, I was in front of the most mytical and imporessive lakes in the world and World Heritage Site of the UNESCO. It is not only the deepest lake (1642m) in the world and the largest freshwater lake by volume with more than 20% of the freshwater on Earth, but also the oldest with around 25-30 million years. Being on of the 20 mystic lakes of the Earth with lake Tahoe, lake Titicaca and Caspian Sea.

Baikal from the Space. Source: NASA

The lake has a Chili shape has a 636 km long and in its widest point is 80km wide.

For the Han in ancient China, the Baikal Lake, was called the North Sea (Běihǎi) and was one of The Four Seas that metaphorically served as the borders of China.

siberian musk deer and baikal Seal

It host more than 3600 endemics species of plants and animals, including their iconic Baikal Seal, which you can watch it in the Baikal Museum aquarium and the vampire like Siberian Musk Deer. The baikal region is also home to the local Buryat tribes.

siberian musk deer and baikal Seal

the Limbo

Being such an huge an ancient body of water it will naturally be overed on conspiracies and strange things, shamainisms. For context the Baikal Lake is 3,000 the water volume of the Loch Ness where the mythical Loch Ness Monster may live.

the Tree

More than 300 of rivers flows into the Baikal Lake and only one flows out, the Angara River which passes through Irkutsk, Angarsk, Bratskand Krasnoyarsk.

the Roots

This siberian lake has one of the most crytal clear waters of the world, but this doesn’t means it isns’t poluted, there is aknowledge of pollution at least since the 1990s. And scientist have been warning about it being cause by the tourism, industrial emmissions, shipping, etc.