Baikal, Lake In Russia is the important lake. Lake Baikal is located in Southern Siberia near the City of Irkutske in the republic of Buryat near the city of Irkutsk. The name Baikal comes from Baigal which means nature in the Mongolaian language. At 1,637 meters (5,371 ft) it is the deepest lake in the world and is the largest freshwater lake by volume (23,000 km³), containing approximately twenty percent of the world's total surface fresh water.Baikal is home to more than 1,700 species of plants and animals, two thirds of which can be found nowhere else in the world.