Altai (mountain system of eastern Central Asia)

The Altai is a mighty mountain system, about a thousand miles long, in eastern Central Asia. It stretches from Lake Zaysan in the south-west to the upper Selenga and the upper Orkhon, with the sources of the Ob, the Irtysh and the Yenisei. ¹

The region, and the country to the north-east as far as present-day Mongolia, was the oldest home of the Turks and Mongols and of their ancestors. The Turks stayed there for a long time after their refuge in the Otukan mountains. ¹

The oldest Turkish name for the southern Altai, in the Orkhon inscriptions, is Altin-yish, "gold mountains"; in Chinese it is Kin-shan, with the same meaning. The name Ektag mentioned by the Greeks probably refers to Ak Tagh, "white mountain", and seems to refer to the T'ien-shan. The modern name, which appears first in the Kalmuk period, is connected with the Mongol altan, "gold"; the local population explains it by a false etymology as alti ay, "six months". ¹