Lake Baikal is the deepest and one of the clearest lakes in the world. Baikal is also the world’s oldest lake (more than 25 million years old). Lake Baikal is the most voluminous freshwater lake in the world with an average depth of 744.4 m. It contains 20 percent of the world’s surface fresh water.
It is also known as “the Pearl of Siberia”.
Baikal is home to more than 1,700 species of plants and animals, two thirds of which can be found nowhere else in the world and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996.
...Baikal contains about 20 % of the world's unfrozen surface fresh water?
...Baikal is one of the most ancient lakes in geological history (25-30 millions years)?
...contains 27 islands?
...the largest island is Olkhon (72km long)?
...Olkhon is the third largest lake-bound island in the world?
... the Baikal seal or nerpa is one of only three entirely freshwater seal populations in the world?
...one of the most important local species is the omul, a smallish endemic salmonid?