#1
Lake Baikal — 1,642 m
Not just Asia's deepest lake but the world's, and the world's oldest at 25–30 million years old — its rift-valley basin is still widening by about 2 cm a year.[1]
Geography & Countries
The Deepest Lakes in Asia
Ranked strictly by maximum depth, not surface area — Asia holds the world's single deepest lake, Siberia's Lake Baikal, along with rift lakes, volcanic calderas, and one earthquake-dammed reservoir in the Pamirs.
| Rank | Lake | Max Depth | Country |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lake Baikal | 1,642 m | Russia |
| 2 | Caspian Sea | 1,025 m | Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Iran, Azerbaijan |
| 3 | Issyk-Kul | 668 m | Kyrgyzstan |
| 4 | Lake Matano | 590 m | Indonesia |
| 5 | Lake Toba | 505 m | Indonesia |
| 6 | Sarez Lake | 505 m | Tajikistan |
| 7 | Lake Van | 451 m | Turkey |
| 8 | Lake Poso | 450 m | Indonesia |
| 9 | Dead Sea | 304 m | Israel, Jordan |
| 10 | Lake Khövsgöl | 262 m | Mongolia |
| 11 | Lake Towuti | 203 m | Indonesia |
No matching rows.
The Top 5
#2
Caspian Sea — 1,025 m
The world's largest inland body of water, bordered by five countries and classified by geographers as a giant salt lake rather than a true sea since it has no outlet to the open ocean.[1]
#3
Issyk-Kul — 668 m
The world's second-largest mountain lake by area, ringed by the snow-capped Tian Shan range; despite sitting at over 1,600 m elevation, it never fully freezes — its name translates to "warm lake."[1]
#4
Lake Matano — 590 m
The deepest lake in Southeast Asia and on any island worldwide, with such exceptional clarity that its remarkably isolated fish and snail species are studied as a real-world example of rapid evolution.[1]
#5
Lake Toba — 505 m
The world's largest volcanic lake, filling the caldera of a supervolcano that erupted roughly 74,000 years ago; the island of Samosir sitting in its center is nearly as large as all of Singapore.[1]
Sources
- Maximum-depth figures aggregated from lake-depth reference compilations and national geographic surveys. The Dead Sea's depth is measured from its current, shrinking water level and continues to decrease over time.