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• About Baikal

About Baikal

Among all beauties and riches of Siberia, Lake Baikal is a special place. It’s the greatest riddle, which nature has ever presented, and it’s still not solved. Disputes about how Baikal appeared are still going on. There are several hypotheses about it such as inevitable slow transformations or because of a huge catastrophe in the Earth’s crust.
It’s the deepest lake in the world. Its depth reaches 1637 m. Baikal contains 23 thousand km3 (22% of world’s stocks) of pure, transparent, fresh, generously enriched with oxygen, unique water. There are 22 islands on the lake. The biggest of them is Olkhon Isle. Baikal’s shore line is 2100 km.
Nature was creating this wonderful factory of pure water for several millions of years. Baikal is unique in its antiquity. Its age is about 25 millions years. Usually a lake is considered to be old when it’s 10-20 thousand years, but Baikal is young, and it has no factors which can show that it’s getting older and that it will disappear from the world’s surface in the nearest future. Vise versa, researchers of last years have helped physicians to form a hypothesis that Baikal actually can become an ocean. It’s proven by the fact that Baikal’s shores are getting further apart, with the rate some 2 centimeters per year, as continents Africa and South America do.
Coasts dressed in crystal breeds, slopes and lake’s bottom help in keeping the water pure. Prompt water-currents, noisy falls, big and tiny rivers, and streams are flying into Baikal. There are about 336 big and little inflows of lake. The largest of them are Selenga, Upper Angara, Barguzin, Turka, and Snezhnaya. Only one river outflows from the lake. Its name is Angara. It goes out from the lake and brings its pure waters to the river Enisey.
Baikal amazes you with its beauty, rich of fauna, and uniqueness. It’s counted that 60% of 2630 species of animals and plants, which can be found in the Lake, can not be seen at any other place in the world. Among them are the fishes golomyanka and Baikal’s omul, and the insects gamarusses.
At the lakes area taiga and desert, tundra and rocky fields exist in harmony. All of this: trees and flowers, animals and birds, world of sun and depth – protects the waters of Baikal.
Inhabitants of Baikal believe the lake to be a saint, and they treat it as a live, wise creature. Native buryat (buryats are inhabitants of the lake) will never allow himself to throw even the coast rock into the lake: “Baikal by his wave put it on this place, so it must lay here!” First Russian explorers also have recognize (or may be felt) the sanctity of the lake.

Legend about Baikal’s daughter – Angara

In old times powerful Baikal was funny and kind. He loved dearly his only daughter Angara. She was the most beautiful in the entire world. In the afternoon she became as light as the sky can be, and in the night she was darker than a thunder cloud. And everybody who had passed Angara, enjoyed her and glorified her. Even birds of passage: geese, swans, cranes – went down, but seldom touched Angara’s water face. They said: “How can we make light black?”
Old Baikal took care of his daughter more than of himself. Once, when Baikal fell asleep, Angara ran out to the young man Enisey. Her father woke up angrily, moved his waters. A great storm began. Mountains cried, trees fell, the sky turned black, and animals in fear ran away all over the world. Fishes dived to the bottom of the water, and birds flew to the sun. Only the wind was blowing hard, and the sea was worrying. Powerful Baikal hit the mountain and broke a piece from it; throwing it after his daughter. The cliff fell on her beautiful neck. Blue-eyed Angara begged; choking and crying, she began to ask: “Father, I’m dying from thirst, excuse me, and give me at least one drop of water!” Baikal shouted angrily: “All I can give you is my tears!”
Now thousands of years later Angara flows to Enisey with tears; and grey lonely Baikal has become gloomy and scary. The cliff, which was thrown after Angara, people name Shaman’s Rock. And rich victims were brought to Baikal there. People used to say: “Baikal will be angry, and will break Shaman’s Rock, causing water to rush and fill all the ground ".
But long ago it was; now people are brave and are not afraid of Baikal…
If you give yourself an amazing meeting with Baikal, you’ll feel spirit of this great lake, its magic and majesty!

Information for tourists

Irkutsk phone code: 395-2
Ulan-Ude ph. code: 301-2
Distance from Irkutsk to Baikal (village Listvyanka): 68 km
Distance from Ulan-Ude to Baikal (village Gremyachinsk): 130 km
Time difference with Moscow: 5 h
Distance on the car road from Irkutsk to Ulan-Ude: 465 km
Flight time on the plane “AN-24” from Irkutsk to Ulan-Ude: 40 min
You can travel over Baikal at any season. Each of them is interesting its own way and available for trips.

Seasons

WINTER. Traveling in winter is a bit difficult because of climate conditions and short day light. In December it gets light around 9 a.m. and turns dark after 5 p.m. It’s really frosty at this time of year (less than -30oC), snow crackles under your feet and trees are all covered with shiny snow. There is no ice on the Baikal until January; water soars, covering opposite shores. Clear Baikal’s ice and huge hummocks are most exciting in March. At the end of winter and in the beginning of spring ice moves alot, and hummocks can be taller than people. But the most impressive parts are underwater! Underwater icy caves, tunnels and grottoes will never leave you indifferent. The clear ice of Baikal’s hummocks attracts the attention of all tourists. Many of them remark about the amazing blueness on the edges of ice blocks. Clearness of the ice allows you to see the bottom, not far from the shores, and the black depth far away. Up to the end of December you can spend time aboard the ship including diving, and in February-March you can join jeep safari over the ice with under ice divings. In January ships stop to sail and it’s still too dangerous to drive over the ice. But at this time divings from the shore are very popular. In March-April during sunny weather it’s not cold on the ice, and it’s enough for travelers in the afternoon to wear only a sweater or even T-shirt. In the beginning of April the blue ice begins to grow dull and becomes covered with a white rough layer. There are often huge pools and it seems that you drive not over the ice, but on the water. At this time you can watch nerpa with its babies. They often go out from their caves to get warm on the ice. Nerpa lies not everywhere, and more often you can find it only in the middle of the lake, which can be accessed only by motorbikes, due to thinness of the April’s ice.

SPRING. If you want to enjoy Baikal’s beauty without crowds of tourists on its coasts you should come here in the beginning of summer (May 15th – June 10th). At this time Baikal ice begins to melt, and the cold air is clear with no fogs. You rarely meet boats and vessels on the water. On the ground there are few fishermen and tourists. It’s still a little bit cold at Baikal up to the middle of June, and it’s necessary to take warm clothes with you. The ice melting on the lake is not equal. The south part of Baikal gets rid of its ice at the beginning of May, and the north in the end of May. The congestions of ice floes, where you can see nerpa, continue to swim over the lake up to the time of June 1st to the 10th. On the pebble beaches of the reserves of Barguzinskii and Baikalo-Lenskii you often can see bears coming out from their caves to eat.

SUMMER. The warmest time for trips among the wild nature is from June 15th to August 30th. At this time of the year Baikal has the warmest days and nights. As a rule, the weather is hot and sunny. In the summer there are crowds of people, as in the city, on the most favorite rest places of Maloe Sea and Chivyrkuiskii gulf, especially those where you can get by car. On the shores, where there are no roads, tourists can be found more seldom. At the north part of Baikal, on the territory of the reserves, even at the peak of the season, tourists are a great rarity. If you go from the shores to the mountains, you’ll find no roads and people have never stepped there.

FALL. The end of September, we call it “nanas’ summer”, attracts artists and photographers by the variety of colors of the woods. Especially amazing are the mixed woods on the shores of the bay of Peschanya and Chivyrkuiskii gulf. Also attractive are the bright-yellow deciduous woods of Maloe Sea. Changeable weather with strong winds and often storms gives a special beauty to Baikal’s landscapes.