If you intend to spend some time in Asia, don’t forget to wander near the pristine waters of their artificial lakes, maybe near some of the largest artificial lakes in Asia.
Contrary to what you may think, Asia (an area which, geographically follow the Caucasus Mountains, the Ural Mountain, the Caspian Sea, the Black sea and includes Russia and China) possesses numerous lakes and, in some cases, some of their artificial lakes are also wonders of nature.
We may not be as big as Jupiter, the biggest planet in our solar system, but our little planet Earth has a treasure that we, humans, use without thinking: water.
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Water allowed us, as a species, to develop, and to this day we can’t survive very long without it. But water is becoming one of the hottest issues of the 21st century as centuries of wasting it means that there is less H2O available for us but the world population is growing, accenting the needs for water.
Do you know what happens when water evaporate? We end up with deserts like Sahara. However, you may be surprised that Sahara is not the largest desert in the world… Antarctica is. According to National Geographic’s article, “Antarctica, a polar desert covering 5 million square miles, is the largest desert overall”. That’s because experts consider that deserts are places receiving less than 25.4 cm of precipitation per year. And well, Antarctica falls in that category.
Talking about largest, do you know what is the deepest lake in the world? And where it is located? It is Lake Baikal, situated in Russia, so in Asia. According to various sources, the bottom of this amazing lake is somewhere between 1,500 and 1,700 meters deep! It also contains, according to the UNESCO, “20% of the world’s total unfrozen freshwater reserve.” And, it is inscribed on the UNESCO’s World Heritage list since 1996.
If you are curious about freshwater lakes, and while touring Asia you find yourself in India, check our list of the 11 Largest Freshwater Lakes in India. You may even find yourself changing some of your plans to check out those great places.
Coming back to our largest artificial lakes in Asia, they may not be the deepest or the largest in the world but they still are a feast for the eyes. Can you imagine that humans manage to replicate, with many efforts, what the Earth patiently shaped during its millions of years of existence? To put together this list, we arbitrarily chose to compare artificial lakes by surface area and readily available information on each reservoir, rather than counting the catchment area. Yes, those lakes are coming with their own sets of problems (population displacements, loss of local flora and fauna, etc…) but you should still enjoy those human wonders while you can. So, let’s start with the largest artificial lakes in Asia!
