Спасибо, Russia! For quite a while now, I have found Russia to be one of the most fascinating countries in the world. I have always wanted to travel to Russia, but as of yet, I have not been. I love the nuances of the Russian language, I love the cyrillic text, and the unique architecture and music of Russia has always intrigued me and helped me realize my interest in cultures other than my own.

I recently discovered that Russia is home to the largest surface freshwater lake in the world: Lake Baikal. Located in the eastern part of the country, east of the Ural mountains, the lake is well into the Siberian plain. Lake Baikal is over 12,500 square miles of freshwater, leaving it the world’s largest freshwater lake; it accounts for around 20% of the unfrozen surface freshwater on the planet.

This is the link to the Wikipedia article about Lake Baikal. Some of the information is truly amazing, such as the fact that 1,700 different types of animals consider Lake Baikal home, over two-thirds of which cannot be found anywhere else in the world. The lake is also home to the Baikal Deep Underwater Neutrino Telescope, a research module located two-thirds of a mile deep in the lake around two miles from shore. There are even two Russian folk songs about the lake.

All of the photos below should be linked to their original websites. I cannot take credit for any of the photography shown below, though hopefully one day I will be taking pictures of Lake Baikal myself! Enjoy!