As a guy standing at 160cm (5 feet, 3 inches), anybody who stands at a height of at least 5 feet, 8 inches is already gigantic from my perspective, let alone anybody who stands at a height of at least six feet. We have heard legends and tales of giants, perhaps even when we were children, such as Jack and the Beanstalk, and of course, there are the Biblical stories of Goliath, or the Nephilim. Then there's the mention of the Cyclopes and the Titans in Greek and Roman mythology.
In more recent times, we have seen a few people in sports and entertainment who can be categorized as "giants" who are at least seven feet tall, towering over much of the general population. People like Andre the Giant and the Great Khali in entertainment wrestling, Yao Ming, the center for the Houston Rockets until he retired in 2011, and Matthew McGrory, the giant portrayed in the film Big Fish, who stood at 7 feet, 6 inches, and sadly passed away in 2005 at the age of 32, due to congestive heart failure.
The existence of giant humans has always been a spectacle for people because they're rare. Most of the time, we only hear about them in stories, especially in legends. However, very tall human beings have been around on the earth since time immemorial.
Marta Korbonits, an endocrinology professor at Queen Mary University of London, cites the case of an ancient Egyptian pharaoh who has been alleged to have stood at 6 feet, 1.6 inches, as well as many Irish giants who lived around 2,500 years ago, according to her research.
Records like these show that many people throughout history have been considered giants by their peers, despite standing at around six feet, which would be considered about average today.
Even the tallest person recorded in history, Robert Wadlow, only stood at 8 feet 11 inches. I say "only", but that's relative to how people have mythologized giants. In reality, such a height is shocking in and of itself, and completely unimaginable for me, and perhaps for a lot of people as well. Despite the fact that Wadlow had been "gifted" with such a physical "advantage", it actually came at a great cost.
According to Korbonits, many giants actually have a growth hormone problem. Wadlow's height stemmed from a medical condition called gigantism caused by a brain tumor which elevated the levels of growth hormone that the pituitary gland produced. It also affected his health, having to wear braces to support his stature. Because of complications with his condition, he only lived to be 22 years old, succumbing to septic shock, after a blister in his ankle popped, brought about in part by the poorly-fitted iron brace he had to wear to support his legs.
Of course, not all giants have this medical condition. Bao Xishun, who was formerly the world's tallest man, stands naturally at 7 feet 9 inches. Currently, Xishun is 72 years old, and lives in Mongolia with his wife.
Further research is looking into whether there were more giants in human history. Pavel Grasgruber, an anthropologist from Masaryk University, has been looking into the Gravettian culture, which he believes to have inspired the myths about giants. From the fossils that they have excavated from the Grimaldi cave system in Czech Republic, they found several skeletons who are estimated to have stood at least 6 feet, 5 inches.
Some factors that could have contributed to their height may be the abundance of food due to the low population density of the area. Although genetics also plays a large role in our height, these environmental factors can positively affect our physical build, frame, and stature. So, giant humans were not just myths, but there have been real ones in history, and perhaps they are the ones on whom the stories were based.
(Image credit: Public Domain/Wikimedia Commons)
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