Almas — Wild Man of Central Asia Reported by Nomads and Scientists for Centuries

The Almas — whose name translates roughly as "wild man" in Mongolian — is a large, bipedal, hair-covered humanoid reported from the remote mountains of Central Asia, particularly the Caucasus, Altai, Pamir, and Tian Shan ranges. Unlike the Bigfoot of North America, the Almas is described as more human-like and primitive rather than ape-like, and is associated with the idea of a surviving archaic human lineage. Accounts date back centuries in Mongolian, Kazakh, and Caucasian oral traditions. The creatures are described as between five and seven feet tall, covered in reddish or dark hair, with notably human facial features, and a shuffling gait. Unlike most cryptids, the Almas is reportedly reclusive rather than aggressive and will avoid human contact. In 1925, Mikhail Stephanov Topilski, a Soviet general, reported encountering an Almas body after his troops shot a creature they initially believed was a human spy. He described it in detail in his memoirs. Multiple Soviet scientists took the legends seriously, and a Commission for the Study of the Snowman Question was established in the 1950s under the Academy of Sciences to investigate the phenomenon. Boris Porshnev, a prominent Soviet historian and ethnologist, conducted extensive fieldwork and collected hundreds of accounts before his death in 1972. He theorized that the Almas represented a surviving population of Neanderthals or Homo heidelbergensis. The hypothesis remains scientifically contentious but distinguishes the Almas from most cryptozoological subjects by its association with known extinct human relatives.