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| 1774 Lake Baikal - Babushka Bay |
Located in southern Siberia, between Irkutsk Oblast to the northwest and the Buryat Republic to the southeast, Lake Baikal is the largest (by volume) freshwater lake in the world, containing roughly 20% of the world's unfrozen surface fresh water. Also, at 1,642m, it is the world's deepest lake, and is considered among the world's clearest and the world's oldest lake (25 million years). It was formed as an ancient rift valley, having the typical long crescent shape. Known as the "Galapagos of Russia", 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.
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