Lake Baikal
Water
The deepest and oldest lake in the world, in Siberia.
Lake Baikal in Siberia is the deepest lake in the world: 1,642 metres. It is also the oldest, at about 25 million years.
It holds roughly a fifth of all the fresh water in the lakes and rivers of the Earth. In winter the lake freezes over with ice more than a metre thick.
- deep
- 1,642 m
- years old
- 25 million
- of the world's fresh surface water
- 1/5
- 1
The water is so clear that in places you can see 40 metres down.
- 2
More than 300 rivers flow into the lake. Only one flows out: the Angara.
- 3
The Baikal seal lives here and nowhere else. It is one of the very few seals that live in fresh water.
Question 1 of 2
What is special about Lake Baikal?
- Great Wall of ChinaNot one wall but many, built over two thousand years.
- Forbidden CityThe palace of China's emperors, closed to ordinary people for five hundred years.
- Terracotta ArmyThousands of soldiers of clay, guarding an emperor's tomb.
- YangtzeThe longest river in Asia cuts China in two.
It is in Russia.
Read about Russia