The Bajkal Sea covers 31,500 square km. and is
636 km. long, at its widest point it is 79,4 km. Its water basin
occupies about 557,000 square km. and contains about 23,000 cubic km.
of water. This adds up to about one fifth of the world's reserves of
fresh water and more than 80 per cent of the fresh water reservoir in
the former Soviet Union. The Bajkal Sea is the deepest lake in the
world. The presently known maximum depth is 1,642 m. However, this is
far from the whole story, as approximately 7000 meters of sediment lie
under the bottom. Bajkal's inscrutable depths may hide underwater voids
which are connected to channels that run deeply into
the underworld.
Bajkal is situated in Eastern Siberia, in the
Buryat Autonomous Republic and Irkutsk Region of Russia, and is the
natural boundary between Russian Siberia and present-day Mongolia. It
plays a momentous role in Mongol history. The Secret History of The
Mongols relates, through its ancestral myth, how the Mongol people came
into being: The blue-gray wolf and his wife, the reddish-brown deer,
came from Northern Siberia with its vast Tundra and Taiga areas and
travelled together across the "inland sea" - that
is the Bajkal Sea.
When these two had reached the Onon river on the
Eastern side of Bajkal, their first son, Batachikan, was born.
Batachikan was then the first human ancestor of Chingis Khan.
Mythologically speaking, travelling across water is symbolic of
transcendence, of reaching new stages. The Bajkal Sea was thus the
catalyst of the emergence of the Mongol nation, and also the bridge
between the two main constituents of the spiritual ancestry of the
Mongols: The Northern, Siberian forest element, and the
grassland and plain element. Consistent with this significant role of
the Bajkal Sea in Mongol history: In the vicinity of the Bajkal Sea
were born two key figures of the history of the Mongols: Chingis Khan,
the founder of the Mongol Empire and the greatest politician who ever
lived, and Subedei of the Urianqai or Reindeer People, his forever
faithful and most gifted general. It
merits mention that "chingis" in all probability comes from Turkish
tengiz, which means "large body of water, sea." The meaning of Chingis
Khan will then be "Khan from the Sea." We can easily guess from which
sea Chingis Khan took his name, and this implies that the real meaning
of his title is "Khan from the Bajkal Sea," once more emphasizing the
crucial role of Bajkal in the Mongolian spiritual universe. As for the
sea herself, water is a feminine element, and the name of the goddess
and ruler of Bajkal is Bajkal-eke. "Eke" means "mother" in Mongolian.
Also significant when we know the feminine principle in the world as
one marked by receptivity is the fact that no less than 330 - three
hundred and thirty - rivers deliver their content loads into the
Bajkal.
Only one single river, the Angara, serves as an
outlet from this unique Sea.
The area around the Baikal Sea is
mind-bogglingly diverse. Around it we find the Northern, dark Taiga,
which is the endless Siberian conifer belt, as well as grassland
steppes mainly concentrated in its southeast areas. The mountains
contain abundant mineral resources, so every kingdom of Nature is
represented here - the animal, the avian, the botanic, the aquatic and
the mineral, and here they have found a natural meeting-ground not
found anywhere else on Earth. Not surprisingly, the whole Bajkal region
is an extraordinarily fertile one. Accordingly, many types of animals
roam in the mountains, valleys and forests. Bajkal is unlike all other lakes in the world by
virtue of its extreme depth, great volume, the high quality of its
water and its very old age. In average lakes exist for no more than
some tens of thousands of years, whereas the Bajkal Sea has been
present in
Central Asia for at least between 20 and 30 million years, and she is
of course incomparably the oldest lake on Earth. Likewise the Sea herself,
as well as the numerous rivers, streams and lakes around, is
plentifully filled with fish. The
Bajkal Sea is
distinguished by virtue of her unparalleled wildlife. The numbers of
different plant and animal species in and around Bajkal are incredibly
high, at least 1,085 different plants and 1,550 types of animal life
have been found by
and are known to humans. In the immense
depth of Bajkal dwell forms of life not found anywhere else on Earth,
many of which certainly undiscovered. To add to all this natural diversity,
even hot springs are found around this sacred Siberian inland sea.
During winter, which effectively lasts from
mid-September to the end of May, the Siberian nature is at the peak of
its powers. Snow remains in the areas around the Bajkal until the end
of June, and only July and August can be considered sommer months.
Toward the end of August frost sets in during nights, and the deep
Siberian winter approaches. Above and in the immediate vicinity of the
Bajkal water basin the average temperature lies at around -20 C during
the coldest periods, but temperatures of -40 and below are far from
uncommon
particularly in the dark winter nights. Just a few kilometers away from
the sea the Siberian winter deepens still further, and temperatures
around -70 C
have occasionally been recorded in this area. These conditions create a
special atmosphere and a special type of life, a special mindset, which
has to be experienced in order to be fully appreciated.
Lake
Bajkal is the true repository of the spiritual principles of Chingis
Khan and the Mongol Empire, and it was its combination of the
different forces and powers of Nature that gave the Mongols their
matchless versatility and flexibility to successfully meet any new
circumstances.
The first sight of the numinous Lake Bajkal instills in you a profound and indelible impression of an enigmatic powerfulness, unforgiving purity, dignity, nobility and grandeur. You mysteriously perceive the presence of the divine, and immediately sense why indigenous people from Siberia and Mongolia have always spoken reverently of her as "the Sea." They rightfully consider her a conscious being, and they believe she might take umbrage if they showed the affront of calling her a lake instead of a sea. She is the deepest, purest and, in light of her uniquely multifaceted surroundings and wildlife, and the otherworldly atmosphere she radiates, a one-of-a-kind lake-sea in this world.
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Last Updated November 04, 2010 by Per Inge Oestmoen