Epic of Manas

The Epic of Manas (Kyrgyz: Манас дастаны, Turkish: Manas Destanı) is a traditional epic poem claimed by the Kyrgyz people dating to the 18th century, though it is possibly much older. The plot of Manas revolves around a series of events that coincide with the history of the region in the 17th century, primarily the interaction of the Turki-speaking people from the mountains to the south of the Dasht-i Qipchaq and the Oirat Mongols from the bordering area of Jungaria.

The government of Kyrgyzstan celebrated the 1,000 year anniversary of Manas in 1995. The eponymous hero of Manas and his Oirat enemy Joloy were first found written in a Persian manuscript dated to 1792-3. In one of its dozens of iterations, the epic poem consists of approximately 500,000 lines, and while Kyrgyz historians consider it to be the longest epic poem in history,

The epic of Manas, with more than 210,000 lines, is one of the longest epics in the world, 20 times longer than Homer's Odyssey . It falls into eight episodes, totaling 20 million characters.

In 2009, a parliament member suggested its nomination for the "longest epic story in the world" because “the great heritage of Kyrgyz people should find its place in the world history.” There have likewise been attempts to identify Manas as Mannasseh of the Old Testament.