Tadzhikistan, Russia
1925
The Pamir mountains, lying in a remote region
where the borders of Tadzhikistan, China, Kashmir, and Afghanistan meet,
have been the scene of many Almas sightings.
In 1925, Mikhail Stephanovitch
Topilski, a major general in the Soviet army, led his unit in an assault
on an anti-Soviet guerilla force hiding in a cave in the Pamirs. One of
the surviving guerillas said that while in the cave he and his comrades
were attacked by several apelike creatures. Topilski ordered the rubble
of the cave searched, and the body of one such creature was found. Topilski
reported: "At first glance I thought the body was that of an ape.
It was covered with hair all over. But I knew there were no apes in the
Pamirs. Also, the body itself looked very much like that of a man. We
tried pulling the hair, to see if it was just a hide used for disguise,
but found that it was the creature's own natural hair. We turned the body
over several times on its back and its front, and measured it."
"The body," continued
Topilski, "belonged to a male creature 165-170 cm [about 5 1/2 feet]
tall, elderly or even old, judging by the grayish color of the hair in
several places. The chest was covered with brownish hair and the belly
with grayish hair. The hair was longer but sparser on the chest and close-cropped
and thick on the belly. In general the hair was very thick, without any
under fur. There was least hair on the buttocks, from which fact our doctor
deduced that the creature sat like a human being. There was most hair
on the hips. The knees were completely bare of hair and had callous growths
on them. The whole foot including the sole was quite hairless and was
covered by hard brown skin. The hair got thinner near the hand, and the
palms had none at all but only callous skin."
Topilski added: "The color of the face was dark, and the creature
had neither beard nor mustache. The temples were bald and the back of
the head was covered by thick, matted hair. The dead creature lay with
its eyes open and its teeth bared. The eyes were dark and the teeth were
large and even and shaped like human teeth. The forehead was slanting
and the eyebrows were very powerful. The protruding jawbones made the
face resemble the Mongol type of face. The nose was flat, with a deeply
sunk bridge. The ears were hairless and looked a little more pointed than
a human being's with a longer lobe. The lower jaw was very massive. The
creature had a very powerful chest and well developed muscles ... The
arms were of normal length, the hands were slightly wider and the feet
much wider and shorter than man's."
Source: Shackley, Myra, Still Living: Yeti, Sasquatch and the Neanderthal
Enigma.
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