Olkhon Island

LAKE BAIKAL, RUSSIA

A natural wonder forever resisting the threats of human development

Lake Baikal in Siberia is the world’s deepest lake, plunging a mile into the earth’s crust. It contains nearly 20 percent of the world’s unfrozen fresh water and is so abundant in wildlife — bears, foxes, sables, rare and endangered freshwater seals — that Unesco calls it “the Galápagos of Russia.” The wildlife, like the lake itself, has been under threat for years, from indifferent Soviet industrial policy, from climate change and from today’s rising tourism, especially from China. Even so, it remains largely unspoiled, and activists are working hard to keep it that way. Olkhon Island, Baikal’s largest, and a place that Buddhists consider one of the holiest in Asia, is a popular base for excursions year round, even from December to April or May, when the surface freezes into turquoise sheets of ice that Siberian winds churn into natural sculptures.