THE BIGGEST LAKE

The biggest lake in the world is Caspian sea.

Despite its name, the Caspian Sea is often regarded as the world's largest lake, though it contains an oceanic basin
(contiguous with the world ocean until 11 million years ago) rather than being entirely over continental crust.

• History:
  The earliest hominid remains found around the Caspian Sea are from Dmanisi dating back to around 1.8 Ma and yielded a number of skeletal remains of Homo erectus or Homo ergaster. More later evidence for human occupation of the region come from a number of caves in Georgia and Azerbaijan such as Kudaro and Azykh Caves. There is evidence for Lower Palaeolithic human occupation south of the Caspian from western Alburz. These are Ganj Par and Darband Cave sites.

Neanderthal remains also have been discovered at a cave site in Georgia. Discoveries in the Huto cave and the adjacent Kamarband cave, near the town of Behshahr, Mazandaran south of the Caspian in Iran, suggest human habitation of the area as early as 11,000 years ago.

The Caspian area is rich in energy resources. Oil wells were being dug in the region as early as the 10th century to reach oil "for use in everyday life, both for medicinal purposes and for heating and lighting in homes." By the 16th century, Europeans were aware of the rich oil and gas deposits around the area. English traders Thomas Bannister and Jeffrey Duckett described the area around Baku as "a strange thing to behold, for there issueth out of the ground a marvelous quantity of oil, which serveth all the country to burn in their houses. This oil is black and is called nefte. There is also by the town of Baku, another kind of oil which is white and very precious (i.e., petroleum)."

In the 18th century, during the rule of Peter I the Great, Fedor I. Soimonov, hydrographer and pioneering explorer of the Caspian Sea charted the until then little known body of water. Soimonov drew a set of four maps and wrote the 'Pilot of the Caspian Sea', the first report and modern maps of the Caspian, that were published in 1720 by the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Today, oil and gas platforms are abounding along the edges of the sea.

• Coordinates 41°40′N 50°40′E
• Type Endorheic, Saline, Permanent, Natural
• Primary inflows Volga River, Ural River, Kura River, Terek River
• Primary outflows Evaporation, Garabogazköl
• Catchment area 3,626,000 km2 (1,400,000 sq mi)[1]
• Basin countries Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia, Turkmenistan
• Max. length 1,030 km (640 mi)
• Max. width 435 km (270 mi)
• Surface area 371,000 km2 (143,200 sq mi)
• Average depth 211 m (690 ft)
• Max. depth 1,025 m (3,360 ft)
• Water volume 78,200 km3 (18,800 cu mi)
• Residence time 250 years
• Shore length1 7,000 km (4,300 mi)