Nikolaos Tompazis

N.A. Tombazi (; 1894–1986) was a Greek photographer who on a British Geological Expedition in 1925 apparently sighted a Yeti creature at 15,000 feet in the Himalayas of Tibet.

Early life Tombazi was born in 1894 in St Petersburg, Russia, where his father served as Ambassador in the Greek Embassy, although his birth was registered in Hydra, the family home. Tombazi was educated in Greece and served his military service in the Balkan Wars. He was employed by the Ralli Brothers' trading company and worked mainly in their Calcutta office. After working with the firm for over 30 years he returned to Greece in 1946, taking up residence in Athens, and became a professional photographer. In the archive of the Royal Geographical Society, of which he was a member, Tombazi is recorded as “candidate for Everest Expedition, photographer and traveller”.

Tombazi was a member of the Royal Photographic Society in London, the Fédération de l'Art Photographique of Switzerland and treasurer of the Photographic Society of Calcutta. A more recent exhibition of his work, Nikolaos Tombazis (1894-1986) India-Greece, was shown in the Benaki Museum in 2005.

Yeti sighting In 1925, Tombazi recorded a potential sighting of a Yeti, a "tall, naked figure tugging at rhododendron bushes", at 15,000 feet (4,500m) in Nepal. Tombazi did not believe in the yeti, thinking the figure he saw was a traveling hermit. In 1925, he wrote a book about his experiences called Account of a Photographic Expedition to the Southern Glaciers of Kangchenjunga in the Sikkim Himalaya. He recounted: "Unquestionably, the figure in outline was exactly like a human being, walking upright and stopping occasionally to uproot or pull at some dwarf rhododendron bushes. It showed up dark against the snow and as far as I could make out, wore no clothes." About two hours later, Tombazi and his companions descended the mountain, and saw what appeared to be the creature's footprints, described as "similar in shape to those of a man, but only six to seven inches long by four inches wide. ... The prints were undoubtedly those of a biped."