By its outlines, Baikal resembles a narrow crescent, so easy to remember that it is easy to find it on the map of Russia, even not particularly strong in geography. Stretching from southwest to northeast for 636 kilometers, Baikal seems to be sandwiched between mountain ranges, and its water surface is at an altitude of more than 450 meters above sea level, which gives every reason to consider it a mountain lake. In the west it borders on the Baikal and Primorsky ridges, in the east and southeast - on the Ulan-Burgasy, Khamar-Daban and Barguzinsky massifs. And this whole natural landscape is so harmonious that one cannot be imagined without the other.