The Yenisei Kyrgyz and the Kyrgyz Khaganate

The Yenisei Kyrgyz lived along the upper Yenisei, in today's Tuva and Khakassia, from the 3rd century BC to the 13th century AD, and appear in the Old Turkic inscriptions as "Qırqız bodun".

The Yenisei inscriptions — runic Turkic texts on gravestones — are mostly Kyrgyz and are among the oldest monuments of Turkic writing.

In 840 the Kyrgyz took Ordu-Baliq, capital of the Uyghur Khaganate, ending it and ruling the Mongolian steppe for a time. In later centuries some Kyrgyz tribes gradually moved to the Tian Shan.