The Altai and the Tien Shan are mountain ranges in the area where Mongolia, China, and the Soviet Union meet.
Few people live in this region today, and there are parts of the mountains that have never been seen by more than a handful of explorers. However, if some reports are true, this region may be inhabited after all, by a strange creature perhaps related to prehistoric man!
This creature, called the Alma, is similar in description to the Yeti of the Himalaya Mountains, but it is more man like than ape like. The Alma is said to be a large creature with a cone shaped head, a broad nose, small, slanting eyes, man like hands, and a body covered with red brown hair. People who claim to have seen the Alma say it is a fast runner and a good climber and swimmer.
As long ago as 1879, a Russian explorer reported seeing such a creature in the region. Scientists in the Tien Shan Mountains described a similar creature they saw trying to steal horses. People in Mongolia reported shooting two hairy creatures they called “wild
men.
Some scientists suspect that the Alma could actually be a relative of Neanderthal Man, an ancestor of modern man who is believed to have become extinct about 40,000 years ago. Tools used by Neanderthal Man have been found in Mongolia, and the footprints of this early species of man are similar to those made by the Alma.
Perhaps the Alma is really an unknown species of ape. But could it at least be possible that Neanderthal Man has survived for thousands of years in this forbidding region? Perhaps the “cave man” still lives.
