  We report on the discovery of an extended stellar halo surrounding the
distant Galactic globular cluster NGC 5694, based on new deep (V ~ 24.5)
wide-field (24' * 20') photometry acquired with VIMOS at VLT. Stars with colour
and magnitude consistent with the Main Sequence of the cluster are clearly
identified out to r ~ 9'(~ 93 pc) from the cluster center, much beyond the
tidal radius of the King model that best fits the inner profile (r_t=3.15'). We
do not find a clear end of the structure within our field. The overall observed
profile cannot be properly fitted with either a King (1966) model, an Elson et
al. (1987) model, or a Wilson (1975) model; however it is very smooth and does
not show any sign of the break near the tidal radius that is typically observed
in stellar systems with tidal tails. The density map we derived does not show
evidence of tidal tails, within the considered field. The extra-tidal component
contains ~ 3.5% of the cluster light (mass) and has a surface density profile
falling as ~ r^{-3.2}. The possible origin of the detected structure is
discussed, as a clear-cut conclusion cannot be reached with the available data.
