Fairytale Landscapes at the edge of Transbaikalia

Baikal is the world’s deepest, oldest, and largest freshwater lake. Located in Siberia and north of the Mongolian border, the region surrounding the lake is known to locals and scientists as Transbaikalia. It is home to a myriad of endemic flora and fauna. Since the beginning of human civilization, native peoples have used the land as a means for survival. 

Photographer Marina Klimanova captures the vastness of wintertime in Transbaikalia at the shores of Olkhon Island. Jagged icebergs and the maze-like frenzy of physics in action are seen in the thick sheet of ice that covers Baikal starting every December. Seemingly endless and aesthetically eerie, the frozen sheet reminds locals of the perpetual cycle of winter, year after year.

Text by Katherine Leung