Altai Mountains in the context of "Junggar Basin"

Oirats (/ˈɔɪræt/; Mongolian: Ойрад [ˈɞe̯ɾə̆t]) or Oirds (Mongolian: Ойрд [ˈɞe̯ɾə̆t]; Kalmyk: Өөрд [ˈøːɾə̆t]), formerly known as Eluts and Eleuths (/ɪˈluːt/ or /ɪˈljuːθ/; Chinese: 厄魯特, Èlǔtè) are the westernmost group of Mongols, whose ancestral home is in the Altai region of Siberia, Xinjiang and western Mongolia.

The first documented reference to Elut and Yelut was in the Onginsk "rune" inscriptions dated in the sixth century. The dating of the Oirats to the 13th century is based on the text of the Secret History of the Mongols. Historically, the Oirats were composed of four major tribes: Dzungar (Choros or Olots), Torghut, Dörbet and Khoshut.

Turkmens (Turkmen: Türkmenler, Түркменлер, توركمنلر‎, [tʏɾkmønˈløɾ]) are a Turkic ethnic group native to Central Asia, living mainly in Turkmenistan, northern and northeastern regions of Iran and north-western Afghanistan. Sizeable groups of Turkmens are found also in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and the North Caucasus (Stavropol Krai). They speak the Turkmen language, which is classified as a part of the Eastern Oghuz branch of the Turkic languages.

In the early Middle Ages, Turkmens called themselves Oghuz; in the Middle Ages, they took the ethnonym Turkmen. These early Oghuz Turkmens moved westward from the Altai Mountains through the Siberian steppes, and settled in the region now known as Turkmenistan. Further westward migration of the Turkmen tribes from the territory of modern Turkmenistan and the rest of Central Asia started from the 11th century and continued until the 18th century. These Turkmen tribes played a significant role in the ethnic formation of such peoples as Anatolian Turks, Turkmens of Iraq, and Syria, as well as the Turkic population of Iran and Azerbaijan. To preserve their independence, those tribes that remained in Turkmenistan were united in military alliances, although remnants of tribal relations remained until the 20th century. Their traditional occupations were farming, cattle breeding, and various crafts. Ancient samples of applied art (primarily carpets and jewelry) indicate a high level of folk art culture.

45°00′N 85°00′E / 45.000°N 85.000°E / 45.000; 85.000

Dzungaria (/(d)zʊŋˈɡɛəriə/; from the Mongolian words züün gar, meaning 'left hand'), also known as Northern Xinjiang or Beijiang, is a geographical subregion in Northwest China that corresponds to the northern half of Xinjiang. Bound by the Altai Mountains to the north and the Tian Shan mountain range to the south, Dzungaria covers approximately 777,000 km (300,000 sq mi), and borders Kazakhstan to the west and Mongolia to the east. In contexts prior to the mid-18th century Dzungar genocide, the term "Dzungaria" could cover a wider area, coterminous with the Oirat-led Dzungar Khanate.

The Altaic (/ælˈteɪ.ɪk/ ) languages are a sprachbund and rejected proposed language family comprising the Turkic, Mongolic and Tungusic language families, with some linguists having included the Koreanic and Japonic families. The proposed Altaic language family is no longer considered valid, as linguistic similarities among Turkic, Mongolic, and Tungusic languages are better explained by areal convergence within a convergence zone rather than by a shared genetic lineage, a phenomenon observed cross-linguistically in diverse language families worldwide.

These languages share agglutinative morphology, head-final word order and some vocabulary. The once-popular theory attributing these similarities to a common ancestry has long been rejected by most comparative linguists in favor of language contact, although it continues to be supported by a small but stable scholarly minority. Like the Uralic language family, which is named after the Ural Mountains, the group is named after the Altai mountain range in the center of Asia.

The Mongolian Plateau or Altai Plateau is an inland plateau in East Asia covering approximately 3,200,000 square kilometers (1,200,000 sq mi). It is bounded by the Greater Hinggan Mountains in the east, the Yin Mountains to the south, the Altai Mountains to the west, and the Sayan and Khentii mountains to the north. The plateau includes the Gobi Desert as well as dry steppe regions. It has an elevation of roughly 1,000 to 1,500 meters (3,300 to 4,900 ft), with the lowest point in Hulunbuir and the highest point in the Altai.

Politically, the plateau spans all of Mongolia, along with parts of China and Russia. Inner Mongolia and parts of the Dzungarian Basin in Xinjiang encompass the Chinese portion of the plateau. In Russia, the plateau forms Transbaikal, part of Buryatia, and the southern Irkutsk Oblast. The Mongolian Plateau comprises the majority of the area known as the Mongol heartland.

The West Siberian Plain (Russian: Западно-Сибирская равнина, romanized: Zapadno-Sibirskaya ravnina) is a large plain that occupies the western portion of Siberia, between the Ural Mountains in the west and the Yenisei River in the east, and the Altai Mountains on the southeast. Much of the plain is poorly drained and consists of some of the world's largest swamps and floodplains. Important cities include Chelyabinsk, Novosibirsk, Omsk, and Tomsk, as well as Surgut and Nizhnevartovsk.

Winters on the West Siberian Plain are harsh and long. The climate of most of the plain areas is either subarctic or continental. The plain had large petroleum and natural gas reserves. Most of Russia's oil and gas production was extracted from this area during the 1970s and 80s.

The Denisovans or Denisova hominins (/dəˈniːsəvə/ də-NEE-sə-və) are an extinct species or subspecies of archaic human that ranged across Asia during the Middle to Late Pleistocene, approximately 200,000–32,000 years ago. Most of what is known about Denisovans comes from DNA evidence. While many recent fossils have been found and tentatively identified as Denisovan, the first Denisovans discovered were known from few physical remains. Consequently, no formal species name has been established. However, an analysis of the mitochondrial DNA and endogenous proteins from the Harbin cranium, which had been given the name Homo longi, showed with great certainty that this species represents a Denisovan.In a study published in September 2025, remains from six additional sites in China including the 1 million year old Yunxian man were proposed to be included in the species Homo longi along with the genetically confirmed Denisovans.

The first identification of a Denisovan individual occurred in 2010, based on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) extracted from a juvenile finger bone excavated from the Siberian Denisova Cave in the Altai Mountains in 2008. Nuclear DNA indicates close affinities with Neanderthals. The cave was also periodically inhabited by Neanderthals. Additional specimens from Denisova Cave were subsequently identified, as were specimens from the Baishiya Karst Cave on the Tibetan Plateau, Tam Ngu Hao 2 Cave in the Annamite Mountains of Laos, the Penghu channel between Taiwan and the mainland, and Harbin in Manchuria.

The Kipchaks, also spelled Qipchaqs, known as Polovtsians (Polovtsy) in Russian sources, were Turkic nomads and then a confederation that existed in the Middle Ages inhabiting parts of the Eurasian Steppe.

First mentioned in the eighth century as part of the Second Turkic Khaganate, they most likely inhabited the Altai region from where they expanded over the following centuries, first as part of the Kimek–Kipchak confederation and later as part of a confederation with the Cumans. There were groups of Kipchaks in the Pontic–Caspian steppe, China, Syr Darya, and Siberia. Cumania was conquered by the Mongol Empire in the early 13th century.

The Altai-Sayan region is an area of Inner Asia proximate to the Altai Mountains and the Sayan Mountains, near to where Russia, China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan come together. This region is one of the world centers of temperate plant diversity. Its biological, landscape, historical, cultural and religious diversity is unique. 3,726 species of vascular plants are registered in the region including 700 threatened or rare species, 317 of which are endemic; fauna consists of 680 species, 6% of which are endemic. Its ecosystem is comparatively unchanged since the last ice age, and it is the host of endangered species that include the saiga, nerpa, and snow leopard. It is the focus of ongoing international and regional environmental conservation initiatives.

The area is culturally diverse, with four extant language groups (Mongolic, Turkic, Sinitic and Slavic, and formerly Samoyedic and Yeniseian), and more than 20 indigenous ethnic groups practicing traditional land use systems. There are also a variety of religions including Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Tengrism and Shamanism. The region covers more than one million square kilometers, and has a population of between 5 and 6 million inhabitants.

U-shaped valleys, also called trough valleys or glacial troughs, are formed by the process of glaciation. They are characteristic of mountain glaciation in particular. They have a characteristic U shape in cross-section, with steep, straight sides and a flat or rounded bottom (by contrast, valleys carved by rivers tend to be V-shaped in cross-section). Glaciated valleys are formed when a glacier travels across and down a slope, carving the valley by the action of scouring. When the ice recedes or thaws, the valley remains, often littered with small boulders that were transported within the ice, called glacial till or glacial erratic.

Examples of U-shaped valleys are found in mountainous regions throughout the world including the Andes, Alps, Caucasus Mountains, Himalaya, Rocky Mountains, New Zealand and the Scandinavian Mountains. They are found also in other major European mountains including the Carpathian Mountains, the Pyrenees, the Rila and Pirin mountains in Bulgaria, and the Scottish Highlands. A classic glacial trough is in Glacier National Park in Montana, USA in which the St. Mary River runs. Another well-known U-shaped valley is the Nant Ffrancon valley in Snowdonia, Wales.