The Circumbaikal Highway (Around Baikal Highway, Round Baikal Highway, ) was part of the Main Siberian Postal Highway (главный сибирский почтовый тракт). It started from

Irkutsk Irkutsk ( ; rus, Иркутск, p=ɪrˈkutsk; Buryat language, Buryat and , ''Erhüü'', ) is the largest city and administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia. With a population of 587,891 Irkutsk is the List of cities and towns in Russ ...

, went along the

Irkut River The Irkut (; Buryat and , ''Erhüü go''l) is a river in the Buryat Republic and Irkutsk Oblast of Russia. It is a left tributary of the Angara. It flows out of lake Ilchir which is situated 50 km away from the highest peak of the Eastern Sayan ...

, further southwards around

Lake Baikal Lake Baikal is a rift lake and the deepest lake in the world. It is situated in southern Siberia, Russia between the Federal subjects of Russia, federal subjects of Irkutsk Oblast, Irkutsk Oblasts of Russia, Oblast to the northwest and the Repu ...

(hence the name) to the village of Kultushnoye (now Kultuk). At Kultushnoye the road turned south and went into

Mongolia Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...

. The initial run of the road (up to Kutlushnoye, 93

verst A verst (; ) is an obsolete Russian unit of length, defined as 500 sazhen. This makes a verst equal to . Plurals and variants In the English language, ''verst'' is singular with the normal plural ''versts''. In Russian, the nominative singul ...

(~99 km)) was constructed during 1796-1801. In 1803 it was decided to modernize and extend the road. The extension from Kutlushnoye to Posolsky Monastery was started in 1867.Circumbaikal Highway
The latter stretch is associated with the uprising of Polish political exiles in Siberia of 1866.

References

{{Reflist Roads in Siberia

See also

References