However, when it comes to the amount of space its surface takes up, Lake Baikal isn't even in the top 5. The largest lake in the world by surface area is Lake Superior. The surface of Lake Superior covers 31,700 square miles!
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World's Largest Lake (by volume):Lake Baikal is the world's largest freshwater lake in terms of volume. It contains about 5,521 cubic miles of water (23,013 cubic kilometers), or approximately 20% of Earth's fresh surface water.
Lake Superior is the largest of the Great Lakes and ranks as the second largest lake in the world (by surface area). Source: Lake Superior Basin statistics map produced by Michigan Sea Grant/Michigan State University Extension (2000).
Situated in south-east Siberia, the 3.15-million-ha Lake Baikal is the oldest (25 million years) and deepest (1,700 m) lake in the world. It contains 20% of the world's total unfrozen freshwater reserve.
Forming c. 12 million years ago, the largest lake ever known to have existed on Earth is Megalake Paratethys, which extended from the eastern Alps of Europe to what is now Kazakhstan in central Asia.
Lake Superior's beaches are open and safe for swimming over 90% of the time, and the water is extremely clear, with an average underwater visibility of 8.3 m (27 ft).
Lake Baikal is not only the largest, deepest, and oldest lake in the world, but houses around 2,000 unique known species of animal that are not found anywhere else on Earth.
Not only is Lake Baikal safe to swim in, but it also boasts some of the purest water in the world. The only drawback is the temperature - even during the warmer months, a dip in the lake is pretty invigorating.
Other lakes are so big that they are called seas. The Caspian Sea, in Europe and Asia, is the world's largest lake, with an area of more than 370,000 square kilometers (143,000 square miles). Lakes also vary greatly in depth. The world's deepest lake is Lake Baikal, in Russia.
Lake Ladoga, Russian Ladozhskoye Ozero or Ladozhskoe Ozero, largest lake in Europe, located in northwestern Russia about 25 miles (40 km) east of St. Petersburg.
Lake Kariba is the world's largest artificial lake and reservoir by volume. It lies 1,300 kilometres (810 mi) upstream from the Indian Ocean, along the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe.