Irkutsk

Irkutsk is one of the oldest and most attractive Siberian cities. It was founded in 1652 by Russian cossacks and now it is the capital of Eastern Siberia. It is situated in the south of Siberia, on the Angara River, near its outlet from Lake Baikal and it is one of the largest Siberian cities, situated on the Trans-Siberian Railway.

Irkutsk was named for the small river Irkut, which flows into Angara river. The word "Irkut" came from the languages of native Siberian people of Mongolian physical type. It is translated as speedy, fast flowing river.

The first industrial interprise in Irkutsk was a brick factory. But before it was put into operation, Irkutsk was a town of log structures. The fire in 1879-th destroyed nearly 80% of the central part of Irkutsk. However, the town was rebuilt quickly and its recovery was aided by the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway as far as Irkutsk in 1898. The city’s ancient center is spread along the right bank of the river. It still contains many wooden houses. In Irkutsk there are about 685 historical and cultural monuments, 108 from them have federal Status.

Irkutsk is in many ways the heart of Siberia, with its proximity to Lake Baikal, status as a major transportation hub on the Trans-Siberian railway, and a plethora of scientific and research institutes, including a branch of the Siberian Academy of Sciences. As a local writer once noted, - "To miss seeing Irkutsk is to miss Siberia."

Irkutsk and Lake Baikal are inseparable and cannot exist without each other: through the Angara river, Baikal feeds and cherishes Irkutsk with its freshness and health.

If your eye is caught by the breath-taking blue and your heart stops beating from astonishment and delight as it sometimes happened in childhood; if all petty worries, all the vanities of the world fall off like autumn leaves, and your soul now has wings and is filled with light and silence; if, suddenly, the ready word holds back, and you feel that Nature has its own language, the language that you now understand; if a simple earthly wonder has entered your life and filled it with harmony - this is Lake Baikal.

Baikal is the deepest lake in the world. Its maximum depth is 1,637 m. Baikal is 636 km long and 79.4 km wide at its widest point. The lake's shore-line is about 2,000 km long. Baikal's water surface area is 31,500 sq. km. This comes out to about the area of such a country as Belgium, the Netherlands or Denmark. The gigantic reservoir of fresh water containing about 23,000 cu.km of life-giving moisture is highly saturated with oxygen. The lake is the largest reserve of fresh surface-water on the globe. It would take all the rivers of the world - the Volga and Don, Dnepr and Yenisei, Ural and Ob, Ganges and Orinoko, Amazon and Thames, Seine and Oder - nearly one year to fill Baikal's basin, and all the rivers, streams and brooklets now flowing into the Siberian lake-sea, about four hundred years.

Baikal is inhabited by 52 fish species belonging to 12 families, from Baikal sturgeon to golomyanka (Baikal oil fish). Yet the main commercial fish is omul (Arctic cisco).

The area surrounding Lake Baikal (Prebaikalie) enjoys an abundant and diverse wildlife. The brown bear, raspberries and mushrooms fancier, is scrounging the taiga forest. The hazel-grouse is being stalked by the dandy sable, whose sleek fur is really iridescent in the sun. The stag, the Manchurian deer, is grazing in the swampy sparse larch forests. The jumper musk-deer, the smallest deer, is standing motionless on a rock ledge.The fox, the wild boar, the hare, the Siberian weasel and the stoat are to be found in the taiga. The dense, overgrown forest is inhabited by the glutton and the lynx. One may frequently come across small herds of wild horses places more accessible to hikers.

76 species of plants that inhabit Prebaikalie, are qualified as rare and protected ones. Among them are the endemics and relics of Prebaikalie, the area surrounding Baikal: Boletus luteus, saw-wort, Hedysarum austrosibiricum B. Feldtsch prebaicalensus, and others. There occur plants, whose populations are being markedly reduced: lilies, Trollius asiaticus, Padus avium Mill., apple-tree Pallas, and others. Such valuable medicinal herbs as Rhodiola rosea and Paeonia anomala L. are to be found on the Park's territory, though quite rarely.