Lake Baikal, the world's oldest and deepest freshwater lake,
curves for nearly 400 miles through south-eastern Siberia, north of the
Mongolian border. It lies
in a cleft where Asia is literally splitting apart, the beginnings of a future
ocean.
More than 5,000 feet deep (1637m) at its most profound, with
another four-mile-thick layer of sediment further down, the lake's cold,
oxygen-rich waters teem with bizarre life-forms
.One of those is the seals' favourite food, the golomyanka, a
pink, partly transparent fish which gives birth to live young. Geologists estimate that Lake Baikal formed somewhere 20-25
million years ago, during the Mesozoic.
Surrounded by mile-high snowcapped mountains, Lake Baikal still
offers vistas of unmatched beauty. The mountains are still a haven for wild
animals, and the small villages are still outposts of tranquillity and self-reliance
in the remote Siberian taiga.
