Siberia: Magic of the Great Outdoors

Oryx Voyages
Aug 21
2 min read

Birch forests, marble rocks, tundra, taiga, and desert: the vastest territory of Russia also gives pride of place to the world’s oldest lake, Baikal. A journey to the far reaches of Siberia.

Its immensity is such that even the Russians themselves do not know where the province begins and where it ends. Beyond the Asian slope of the Urals, the vast plain of Western Siberia unfolds into endless expanses of birch trees. A stop in Krasnoyarsk reveals spectacular geology—imagine immense mineral surfboards planted in the forest. The hydroelectric dam, matching the scale of the Yenisei River, is depicted on the ten-ruble note. In Novosibirsk, a city born of the railway, the train station is the main monument. In Central Siberia, birch trees give way to the conifers of the taiga. One thinks of Tatar hordes and the shadows of the gulag. But the colorful wooden houses, the izbas, bring brightness and dispel melancholy all the way to Irkutsk, capital of Eastern Siberia, once a city of adventurers and exiles.

“Choudodié Baikal,” miraculous Baikal! For the Russians, its destiny is to become a sea. This rift, 630 kilometers long and 60 kilometers wide, the oldest and deepest lake in the world, alone holds 20% of the planet’s fresh water. At the fish market of Listvyanka, one can taste smoked omul, a salmonid abundant in the lake, which also feeds sturgeon and the plump Siberian seal. A little further on, the strait of the Little Sea separates Olkhon Island from the mainland. In fine weather, Siberians swim in its coves, land on the islets, or fish for pike. In winter, the transparent waters crystallize into ephemeral roads, revealing their deep blue beneath the thick layer of ice. Steep reliefs, sandy shores, marble rocks, taiga, desert—Olkhon captivates. Here lies one of the largest freshwater islands on Earth, a sacred center of Siberian shamanism. According to the Buryats, spirits have chosen it as their dwelling, and the body of Genghis Khan may rest beneath its soil.

In northeastern Siberia, Yakutia embodies the Siberia of the imagination, the land of extreme temperatures, stretching into the Russian Far East. In Yakutsk, modern dynamism contrasts with the simplicity of nomadic life, that of horse and reindeer herders, whose rhythm follows the herds and the seasons.