LAKE BAYKAL

Lake Baykal: translation

Located in southernSiberia, Lake Baykal is the world’s oldest, deepest, and largest freshwater lake by volume. The 600-kilometer-long and 1,740-meter-deep lake is shared byBuryatiyaon its eastern shore andIrkutsk Oblaston its western shore; it has a surface area of 31,500 square kilometers. A body of water with religious significance to the indigenousBuryats, the lake also attracts visitors from around the world. Known as the “Galapagos of Russia,” Lake Baykal is home to a wide variety of species unique to its ecosystem (including the Baykal Seal), and was declared a UNESCO Heritage Site in 1996. In the early decades of theTransSiberian Railway, cargo and passengers were off-loaded and transported via ferry or, during winter, on sleds across the lake; later rail lines circumvented the lake altogether. International concerns aboutpollutionand waste fromnuclear energyhave been raised in the past decade, given the fact that the lake possesses 20 percent of the world’s unfrozen freshwater reserves.