Baikal: The oldest and deepest freshwater lake in the world

Lake Baikal, the world’s oldest and deepest freshwater lake, curves for nearly 400 miles through south-eastern Siberia, north of the Mongolian border. It lies in a cleft where Asia is literally splitting apart, the beginnings of a future ocean.

Geologists say Baikal today shows what the seaboards of North America, Africa and Europe looked like as they began to separate millions of years ago. Geologists estimate that Lake Baikal formed somewhere 20-25 million years ago, during the Mesozoic.

Surrounded by mile-high snowcapped mountains, Lake Baikal still offers vistas of unmatched beauty. The mountains are still a haven for wild animals, and the small villages are still outposts of tranquillity and self-reliance in the remote Siberian taiga, as the forest is called.

Of these plants and animals, 75 percent are found only in the Lake Baikal region, making its preservation crucial. Out of all the animals living in the Lake Baikal, the most interesting are the fresh water seals. Scientists still have not determined how the seals got to Lake Baikal, although it is supposed that they travelled here in prehistoric times from the Arctic through a river.