Giant people. Myths and reality. The tallest man in the world lived in the Russian Empire? Height more than 2 meters

At least, this is what some scientists think, who decided to check where is truth and where is fiction in the legends about giants who inhabited the Earth in ancient times

… This mysterious story took place in 1912 near the small American village of Lovelock in Nevada. In an abandoned cave, while digging up a four-meter layer of bat excrement for fertilizer, local farmers unexpectedly stumbled upon the mummies of huge red-haired people. The growth of the mysterious giants exceeded the two-meter mark. It later turned out that the local Payutti Indians had long known about the existence of a tribe of red-haired giants and called them “eaters of the dead.” Why the tribe died out is unknown. 60 huge skeletons removed by farmers from the cave were burned and used for fertilizer, and one of the few evidence of the existence of giants on Earth disappeared.

But others remained. Thus, there are legends about giants in the folklore of many nations and even in the Old Testament. In addition, strange structures are scattered all over the Earth, which, according to some researchers, could have been created by the hands of giants who may have once dominated the Earth.

The ancient British called Stonehenge "the dance of the giants"

The surface of our planet is dotted with giant structures created many thousands of years ago. They are found in deserts, valleys, at the bottom of the ocean, in the mountains. Even skeptics have an involuntary question - who, if not the giants, could build these architectural wonders?

In Bolivia, near Lake Titicaca, huge stone platforms are scattered everywhere. The length of the largest of them once reached 29 meters, and its weight was 900 tons. This place is located in the Andes, at an altitude of 4100 meters. There is not a single tree around. It is impossible to move a 900-ton platform without wooden rollers. But even with wooden rollers this is extremely difficult.

On the other side of the world, in Great Britain, there is perhaps the most famous megalithic structure - Stonehenge. A circle of massive stone pillars (the largest is nine meters long and weighs 50 tons) was erected here thousands of years ago. The ancient Britons called this stone circle the “giants’ dance” and believed that it was built by giants. Who and how actually built Stonehenge remains a mystery.

Among the inhabitants of the Mediterranean island of Malta there is a belief that their island was the last stronghold of giants in the world.

Malta has gigantic temples that are at least seven thousand years old, says Erich von Däniken, the author of the best-selling book The Eyes of the Sphinx, who has devoted much time to researching megalithic structures. - One of them is still called the temple of giants. Local legend says that the temple was built by the giantess Sunsuna. The blocks are so huge and heavy that no normal person could move them.

Those who built all the megaliths of the ancient world inhabited this world before us, says Bruce Rucks, author of the best-selling book Architects of the Underworld. - Some called them gods, others giants. Only now can we truly appreciate these creations of architecture.

“There we saw giants and were before them like locusts.”

The history of two amazing megalithic structures erected in the Middle East is reflected in the Bible. The first is the grand temple of Baalbek in Lebanon, which is mentioned in the Book of Kings. Its ruins contain the largest stones ever used in construction. Even their true mass is unknown. These blocks were somehow carved out, moved over a distance of eight kilometers, raised several meters and laid so tightly that even a blade or piece of paper could not be inserted between them! According to legend, the temple was erected after the Great Flood by a tribe of giants for the biblical king Nimrod.

Spiral-shaped Gilgol Rephaim is located in the Golan Heights near Damascus. Built from loose stones with a total mass of 40 thousand tons, it resembles Stonehenge. Both megalithic structures were erected about five thousand years ago. It is said that Gilgol Rephaim was also created by giants, and there is a quotation from the Bible that confirms this.

When the Jews came here and wrote the Bible, the structure was already standing, says Israeli archaeologist Daniel Herman. --They documented the name of the place, indicating that the area was ruled by Ogg, king of Bashan. Ogg is described in Deuteronomy: “For only Ogg king of Bashan remained of the Rephaim.” In Hebrew, "rephaim" means "giant."

The Old Testament also tells how, while wandering through the desert with his people, Moses sent out scouts to find a place where they could settle. The scouts headed north to Hebron, and when they returned, they reported: “We saw giants there, and we were before them in our sight, like locusts.”

But the most famous biblical giant was Goliath the Philistine, one of the five giant brothers.

Archaeologist Vandile Jones devoted his life to researching the history of Goliath and the Ark of the Covenant, which, according to the holy book of the Jews, was stolen by Goliath.

As legend has it, Goliath was slain by David, the future king of Israel, in a field 24 kilometers southwest of Jerusalem, says Vandyle Jones. -- Just three kilometers from the place where the famous battle took place, there is an overgrown mound 24 meters high. It is believed that Goliath rests here, but no one knows for sure because it has never been excavated.

Skeletons of huge people with two rows of teeth found in the American Midwest

There are also many large mounds in the American Midwest that are considered graves.

A number of giant mounds have been excavated across the Midwest since 1850, says archaeologist David Hatcher Childress. -- In many cases, skeletons of people whose height exceeded 2.10 meters were discovered. They had two rows of teeth, and in some cases six fingers on each hand and foot.

In the second half of the 19th century in California, a team of miners discovered a wall and began to break it down, hoping to find an ancient treasure behind it. But there were the mummified remains of a very tall woman holding a child covered in fur and strange dust in her arms. The mummified remains of tall women have been found in Death Valley in Texas and other parts of California. But alas, all that remains of these finds are photographs and old newspaper clippings. However, there is also documentary evidence of one mysterious story that happened in Nevada. It started in 1912. Farmers came to a remote cave near the village of Lovelock to collect bat excrement for fertilizer. A surprise awaited them inside. Having dug up a four-meter layer of excrement, they came across duck decoys, baskets and mummies of red-haired giants two meters tall and taller.

It turned out that the Payutti Indians living in the area had long known about the red-haired tribe. In 1883, Princess Sarah Winnimucca wrote a book called Life Among the Payutti, in which she spoke about the huge red-haired people who lived in a cave: “This tribe ate the dead. They went to war against my people. My people got to work and collected wood to seal the entrance to the cave. They then lit a fire and shouted, “Surrender or die!” No one answered. Nobody".

What happened to the red-haired giants is one of the great mysteries of the American Midwest. About 60 skeletons were recovered from the cave. But they disappeared. It is possible that, along with tons of bison bones, they were burned and used as fertilizer, and the evidence of the existence of giants disappeared.

Half-meter-long piranhas grew in a pressure chamber that recreated the atmospheric conditions on Earth millions of years ago.

Among us today there are also people of unusual height. There are giants whose high growth is due to heredity. Maybe their genetic roots should be sought in a tribe of giants? Scientist from Israel's Weisman Institute, Dr. Marvel Antelman, believes he has the answer to this question:

If we all carry the genetic material of the first man, then it is not surprising that giants live within us. Because there is a recessive gene that leads to the appearance of such people. For example, the height of men from the African Watussi tribe reaches two meters 10 centimeters.

Today there is a theory that in ancient times the environment was favorable for the appearance of giants.

Optimal genetic manifestations are the best that is in the DNA of an organism, and they arise in favorable atmospheric conditions, says one of the proponents of this theory, Dr. Karl Boch. -- Thousands of years ago, the ozone layer around the Earth was much thicker. Since then, it has decreased by almost seven times, and this has affected the life expectancy of biological beings. In ancient times, plants and animals lived longer and were larger. This is what we see in the fossils. Elephants, for example, whose height today is 2.40--2. 70, reached 5-6 meters. The wingspan of the dragonfly is about 10 centimeters, and that of its direct ancestor Meganoropsis is about 1.5 meters.

After 35 years of research, Carl Boch built a pressure chamber with double the atmospheric pressure, increased electromagnetic energy (this increases the oxygen content) to recreate the atmosphere that existed around the Earth many thousands of years ago. The experiments brought interesting results. For example, piranhas, which nowadays reach a length of 20-30 centimeters by the age of three and a half, grew up to half a meter in the pressure chamber! At first glance, this experiment looks convincing, but other scientists, alas, have not yet reproduced it.

In the ancient Sumerian image of the solar system there is the planet Pluto, discovered by astronomers only in 1930

There is also a completely fantastic theory that explains the appearance of giants on Earth.

The territory of present-day Iraq is called the cradle of civilization. One of the most ancient states known to historians is the Sumerian kingdom, which arose six thousand years ago. The list of Sumerian inventions is similar to the list of achievements of our society: the first bicameral parliament, the first writing, the first education system Where did all this come from?

The surviving examples of Sumerian writing say that they were taught by ancient beings who descended from heaven to earth. The Sumerians called them Ananoki. The records and drawings left by the Sumerians depict people who came from the planet Nebiru. In many images they are significantly taller than the average person.

The Berlin Museum houses a very remarkable Sumerian cylinder seal. It depicts three human figures - two standing and one sitting. If we assume that those who are standing are of normal height, then the height of the person sitting is approximately three meters! In addition, in the corner of the seal there is a picture of our Solar System with the Sun in the center and the planets around it. But the structure of the solar system became known to European science only a little over three hundred years ago! The seal also depicts the planet Pluto, which was discovered in 1930. And another planet, which the Sumerians called Nebiru, and from where, as they believed, the heavenly giants Ananoki came.

An ancient Sumerian text tells how, more than 400 thousand years ago, the Ananoki flew from outer space, landed in the Tigris-Euphrates valley and founded a colony called Eden. According to the book of Genesis, in Eden, or Eden, Adam was created from the dust of the ground. However, some researchers adhere to a more “high-tech” theory of human origins: supposedly the first people were created using genetic engineering. The genetic material of Ananoki and humanoid creatures that already existed on Earth was taken as the starting material. The hybrid eventually became Cro-Magnon, or modern man.

Based on materials from the Discovery TV channel, prepared

Lyudmila ZAGLADA, “FACTS”

Official science is still suspicious of hypotheses about the existence of gigantic people in the past. However, numerous studies by enthusiasts may well change the usual picture of human history.

Mysterious remains

Traces of the existence of giant people have been discovered repeatedly over many centuries. Reports of found skulls or bones of abnormally large sizes came from different parts of the planet - the USA, Egypt, Armenia, China, India, Mongolia, Australia and even the Pacific Islands. True, a person’s height over two meters now would not surprise anyone. As photographs show, even in the 19th century there were people whose height significantly exceeded two meters.

However, we are talking about finds from which one can judge the much more impressive dimensions of humanoid individuals. In 1911, near Lovelock in the US state of Nevada, guano mining was suspended, as scientists were interested in the found human skeletons with a height of 3.5 meters.

Archaeologists were especially struck by the jaw discovered away from the complete skeletons: its size was at least three times larger than the jaw of an average person.
During the mining of jasper in Australia, the remains of giant people were also found, significantly exceeding three meters in height. But the real sensation was a human tooth 67 millimeters high and 42 millimeters wide. Its owner had to be at least 6 meters tall.

Perhaps the most astonishing discovery was made by the Indian military. Found in the remote Empty Quarter region of India, the well-preserved skeletons reached a height of 12 meters! However, the place was immediately closed from prying eyes, allowing only a team of archaeologists to approach the ancient burial grounds.

Written sources

Information about giant people is contained in almost all known ancient texts - the Torah, Bible, Koran, Vedas, as well as Chinese and Tibetan chronicles, Assyrian cuneiform tablets and Mayan writings.

In the book of the prophet Isaiah there is a mention of how the Jews were sent by sea “to a strong and vigorous people, to a terrible people from the beginning to this day, to a tall people who trample down everything, whose land is cut by rivers.”

But similar information is also available in later sources that claim to be historically accurate. The Arab diplomat Ahmed ibn Fodlan in 922 described the remains of the murdered giant during his embassy to Volga Bulgaria: “and here I am near this man, and I see his height, measuring with my elbow, twelve cubits. And now his head is the biggest cauldron that ever exists. And the nose is larger than a quarter, both eyes are huge, and the fingers are each larger than a quarter.”

If we assume that the Arab traveler’s elbow was of modest size, then the giant’s height was no less than 4 meters.
Interestingly, Fodlan’s story is indirectly confirmed by local legends about an entire tribe of giants, recorded at the end of the 18th century by Russian explorers of the Volga basin.

Stone artifacts

The traces of their material culture can serve as silent witnesses to the existence of giant people. During excavations in Australia, stone tools of impressive size were discovered near the gigantic remains - plows, chisels, knives, clubs and axes, whose weight ranged from 4 to 9 kilograms.

Similar discoveries were made during excavations of ancient settlements in the Okavango Delta. The collection of the US Historical Society exhibits a bronze ax whose height exceeds 1 meter and the blade is half a meter long. The weight of the find is 150 kilograms. A modern athlete would hardly be able to handle such a weapon.
Even more indicative artifacts indicating the possible presence of giants on our planet can be megalithic buildings - we can find them on various continents. Of particular interest to scientists is Lebanese Baalbek, which can only be called a city of giants. At the very least, researchers still cannot scientifically explain the appearance there of stone slabs that fit perfectly together, weighing supposedly up to 800 tons each.

Fake!

A serious debate has recently developed between supporters and opponents of the existence of meganthropes, which does not accept compromises. So anthropologist Maria Mednikova calls the information about the discovery of bones of four-meter people an ordinary fake.

“From a formal point of view,” says the scientist, “it is not confirmed by documented archaeological excavations, there are no conclusions of specialists - anthropologists or forensic doctors - who could reasonably say what these bones are.”

Cases of outright falsification also cause a negative reaction from the scientific community. Thus, the “skeleton of the giant Teutobochus” - the king of the Cimbri, which stood for several centuries in the French Museum of Natural History, turned out to be a fake, skillfully composed of mastodon bones. It is not uncommon for modern discoveries to be exposed upon careful examination of what turn out to be the remains of large mammals. Also, the “defenders of giants” are discredited by the noticeably more frequent cases of photoshop in recent years.

Habitat

The weak point of the theory of meganthropes is modern earthly conditions. Official science assures that with the current atmospheric pressure, oxygen level, gravity and other nuances, people with a height of over 3 meters simply would not survive for purely biological reasons.

As confirmation of this, they cite the example of people suffering from gigantism - such people, as a rule, do not live more than 40 years. However, their opponents have counterarguments. They believe that in the distant past, conditions on Earth were different, including lower gravity and oxygen levels about 50% higher.

The last figure is confirmed by analysis of air bubbles “trapped” in amber. Moreover, modern physicists have simulated conditions in which the force of gravity became an order of magnitude lower than it is now. The conclusions are as follows: weak gravity, low atmospheric pressure and high oxygen content in the air contribute to the gigantization of biological species.

Here, official science does not particularly object - dinosaurs up to 30 meters high are a generally accepted fact. True, there is one more “but”. The age of most machines of giant people is dated back to millions of years, and during this time even bones turn to dust, unless, of course, they are petrified.

"Borjomi Giants"

However, perhaps the giants lived not so long ago. A representative of the same official science, Georgian academician Abesalom Vekua, suggested that 3-meter people inhabited the Borjomi Gorge about 25 thousand years ago. The results of recent discoveries, in his opinion, can become sensational. “Pay attention to the femur,” says the scientist, “it differs from the bone of a modern person in its size and thickness. The skull is also much larger. These people lived and developed separately from the rest of civilization, and therefore differed in height. In scientific literature they are mentioned as giants, but there was no documentary evidence of this hypothesis. Thus, we are on the verge of a sensation. But this will be preceded by painstaking work.”

Man's height

Man's height or human body length- the distance from the apex of the head to the plane of the feet. In anthropology, height is one of the common anthropometric characteristics. Included in the list of indicators of human physical development.

Human height is influenced, among other things, by environmental factors, inheritance from parents, hereditary diseases, age, and gender. Also, height can be influenced by belonging to a particular race and nation. So, for example, the average height of Chinese city dwellers is 158 cm (for men) and 147 cm (for women), and the average height of the Dutch is 184.8 cm and 168.7 cm, respectively.

Growth process

Some dwarfs became famous in military affairs. King Gustav Adolf of Sweden, for example, maintained an entire regiment of dwarf soldiers in his army.

A big increase

In itself, high growth is not yet a sign of gigantism - a serious illness caused by excessive production of somatotropic hormone. Healthy people with gigantic height (200 cm or more) differ from people of average height only in their height. And people with gigantism also differ in proportions.

The tallest person for whom there is reliable evidence was Robert Pershing Wadlow, born in 1918 in Alton, pc. Illinois, USA. When his height was measured on June 27, 1940, he was 2.72 m with an arm span of 2.88 m. His maximum recorded weight reached 223 kg.

Generally accepted rubrication of human body length (height)

The average height of a man on the planet is 175 cm, and a woman is 162 cm.

Average age-related changes in height

Between the ages of 19 and 26, some men may gain 0.5 cm in height per year. Typically, those who have late sexual development grow up at this age. In women at this age, height gain is rare.

After age 26, people may also experience some increase in height - usually up to 2 cm.

On average, men grow up to 18-25 years old, and women - up to 16-19 years old.

Sources

• Height- article from
• Gigantism- article from the Great Soviet Encyclopedia

Notes

Links

Wikimedia Foundation.

• 2010.
• Dawson's Creek (TV series)

Brookite

See what “Human Height” is in other dictionaries: man's height - see human body length. * * * HUMAN HEIGHT HUMAN HEIGHT, cm Human body length (see HUMAN BODY LENGTH) ...

encyclopedic Dictionary MAN'S HEIGHT - see human body length...

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