Russia (Россия, Rossiya in Russian) is by far the world's largest country, spanning a little over 150° in longitude. It is organized as the Russian Federation (Rossiyskaya Federatsiya) with members known as federal subjects (sub'yekty federatsii). Russia is primarily a continental nation but it has important coastlines on the Baltic, Black, and Caspian Seas and very long coastlines on the Arctic Ocean and North Pacific Ocean. To guard these coasts it operates hundreds of lighthouses, many of them historic. Lake Baikal is located in southern Siberia east of the city of Irkutsk, on the border between Irkutsk Oblast and the Buryat Republic (Buryatia), two members of the Russian Federation. The crescent-shaped lake occupies a deep rift valley and is the world's deepest lake, reaching a depth of 1637 m (5370 ft). Its name, baikal, means "rich" or "abundant" in the Mongol language. Although it appears to be completely surrounded by mountains the lake drains by the Angara River, a tributary of the Yenisey River, through a narrow water gap near its southwestern end. Lake Baikal was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1996. There has been commercial navigation on the lake since the late nineteenth century and travel in the area is often by water since there are few roads. However, sources of information on the lake's lighthouses are scarce and not much is known of their history. Visitor reports and photos would be very welcome. Much of the information on this page comes from the research of the late Michel Forand. The Russian word for a lighthouse is mayak (маяк); ostrov is an island, poluostrov is a peninsula, mys is a cape, bukhta or guba is a bay, zaliv is a larger bay or gulf, proliv is a strait, reka is a river, and gavan' is a harbor. Aids to navigation on Russian inland waterways are presumably maintained by Rosmorrechflot, the Federal Agency for Maritime and River Transport.
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![]() Turka Light, Turka, August 2016 Google Maps photo by Michele Luigi Crescentini |
Information available on lost lighthouses:
Notable faux lighthouses:
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Posted June 2, 2009. Checked and revised May 22, 2024. Lighthouses: 10. Site copyright 2024 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.