Rivers and Lakes

Rivers and LakesThe Rivers and Lakes exhibit introduces visitors to a variety of natural landscapes, animals, and plants of the Amur River basin. Murals and video walls display picturesque sceneries and inhabitants of lakes Khanka and Baikal.

The Amur River is one of the world’s largest waterways with the biggest basin among all rivers running into the Pacific Ocean. Flowing through the territories of three countries - Russia, China, and Mongolia - the Amur River crosses the landscapes of four geographic zones such as semi-deserts, steppes, forest-steppes, and forests. The fish fauna of the Amur is the most diverse in Russia: the river supports about 150 fish species including the world’s biggest freshwater fish – the kaluga. 

Lake Khanka is the largest one in the Russian Far East. The lowlands surrounding the lake are East Asia’s largest wetlands that give shelter to hundreds of thousands of birds. The basin of lake Khanka is the only place in this country where 378 bird species are found, with 55 of them listed in the Red Data Book of Russia.

Baikal is the world’s deepest lake and the largest reservoir of pure fresh water. The lake is known for a unique flora and fauna and houses 2,600 animal species, more than half of which are endemic to Baikal and occur only here.