Lake Baikal is located in southern Siberia (Russia). It is a freshwater lake (it is the world's largest reserve of freshwater 23000 km³) and is the deepest lake in the world (1,637 m). Although it is hard to imagine, the lake's depression in Southern Siberia, with a slightly larger area than that of Belgium, contains 10% of the world's drinking water reserves (excluding glaciers). Lake Baikal, besides being the deepest lake in the world, can be considered the oldest by the 20-25 million years of existence (excluding the Caspian Sea and Lake Aral) and one of the "living museums" in which live about 800 species of animals and 245 endemic species of its own.
