Russia: Lake Baikal - the "Pearl of Siberia"
The border between Siberian Russia and Mongolia is a natural divide with rugged hills and mountains to the north covered in a seemingly endless forest; the Russian Taiga. And to the south, the rolling grasslands of Mongolia. About half-way along this border,set in a gigantic stone bowl nearly 636 km long and almost 80 km wide, lies one quarter of all the the fresh water to be found on earth, - Lake Baikal also known as "The Pearl of Siberia" .