The Tuva and the Altay people are culturally close to Mongols, but speak Turkic languages.

*" Ancient spirit and might preserved by indigenous people of Altay.

The Altay people have a legend about the name of the lake in their language, which means Golden Lake.

* Altay people, an ethnic group.

For the obsolete term for the Turkic Altays, see Altay people.

The Turkic ancestors of the Chuvash people are believed to have come from central Siberia, where they lived in the Irtysh basin ( between the Tian Shan and Altay ) from at least the end of the third millennium BC.

Amongst them are small groups ( such as those in Namibia ) and many very large groups ( such as the almost 1 million non-evacuated Germans in Russia and Kazakhstan or the near 500, 000 Germans in Brazil ), groups that have been greatly " folklorised " and almost completely linguistically assimilated ( such as most people of German descent in the USA, Canada, Australia, Argentina and Brazil ), and others, such as the true linguistic minorities ( like the still German-speaking minorities in the USA, Argentina and Brazil, in western Siberia or in Romania and Hungary ); other groups, which are classified as religio-cultural groups rather than ethnic minorities, ( such as the Eastern-Low German speaking Mennonites in Paraguay, Mexico, Belize or in the Altay region of Siberia ) and the groups who maintain their status thanks to strong identification with their ethnicity and their religious sentiment ( such as the groups in Upper Silesia, Poland or in South Jutland in Denmark ).

Category for articles relating to the Altai or Altay, a mountain range and people spead across four countries in Central Asia: Altai Republic and Altai Krai in Russia ; eastern Kazakhstan ; Xinjiang in China ; and western Mongolia.

This belief can be seen with the Tungusic peoples in Southern Siberia and the Altay people.

Of particular interest are the sketches of the Mongols and the people of Samarkand and its vicinity, the account of the land and products of Samarkand in the Ili Valley at or near Almalig-Kulja, and the description of various great mountain ranges, peaks and defiles, such as the Chinese Altay, the Tian Shan, Bogdo Uula, and the Iron Gates of Termit.

Their culture and origins are similar to those of the northern Altay people and some of the ethnic groups of the Khakas.