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Delve into the fascinating world of giants, both real and mythical, as we explore stories of towering figures from history and unexplained megaliths in Malta. Uncover the mysteries surrounding these enigmatic giants and their significance in our world today. Join us on a journey to discover the truth behind these larger-than-life beings.
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00:01Imagine a person who weighs like an adult reindeer.
00:04As for their height, it is almost like two adults stacked one on the other.
00:09This is exactly what Robert Pershing Wadlow looked like.
00:13This American dude was the tallest person ever recorded,
00:17standing at a whopping 8 foot 11.1 inches tall and weighing 439 pounds.
00:24Growing up, Wadlow was always the tallest kid in the room.
00:27At the age of 8, he was already as tall as his dad.
00:30And at the age of 9, he was strong and big enough to carry his own father.
00:36By the time he graduated high school, he had already grown to be 8 foot 4 inches tall.
00:43As for job prospects, he intended to become a lawyer and he even enrolled in college.
00:48But his height let him have a few side hustles.
00:51First, circus performers that made him a celebrity in no time.
00:55Second, in 1938, he kicked off a promo tour with the International Shoe Company,
01:01snagging free shoes along the way.
01:04Wadlow wasn't about that freak show life, he saw himself as a walking ad for the company.
01:09Because of his huge stature, he needed to wear special braces on his legs to help him walk.
01:15He never used a wheelchair, but walking was definitely a big struggle for him.
01:20Sadly, an infection from a faulty brace led to his untimely demise in 1940.
01:25His coffin was so huge that it took 12 pallbearers and 8 assistants to carry it.
01:31To this day, a life-size statue of Wadlow stands tall in Alton, his hometown.
01:38Throughout his short life, and Robert only lived 22 years, he never stopped growing.
01:44Each year, he would get an extra few inches to his gigantic height.
01:48When he was 21 years old, he passed John Rogan in terms of height,
01:53and that was the guy who had been recorded as the tallest guy ever before Robert came into play.
01:59Rob's predecessor, John Bud Rogan, born in Tennessee, was known as the tallest non-mobile person ever,
02:06measuring 8 feet 9 inches.
02:08His rapid growth started at 13 years old due to gigantism, leading to joint stiffness.
02:14Despite his condition preventing physical labor, Rogan made a living selling portraits and postcards.
02:20He declined offers to join carnivals and sideshows, preferring to maintain his independence.
02:25Rogan used a goat-pulled cart as a wheelchair.
02:29He was known for his deep voice and playful demeanor.
02:32Unlike Robert Wadlow, John Rogan didn't boast a reindeer-like weight.
02:37On the contrary, he only weighed 174 pounds, which is two and a half times less than Robert.
02:45Zheng Jinlian from China rocked the world by becoming the tallest woman ever recorded in modern times.
02:51Despite her parents and siblings being of average height,
02:54she had a gene for towering greatness, but her stature was the result of a condition.
03:00The thing is, a tumor messed with her hormones and made her shoot up in height.
03:05By age 13, she had already been taller than the tallest guy of the same age.
03:11Zheng managed to graduate even with all the attention her height brought.
03:15People came from far and wide to meet her and gawk at her impressive stature.
03:19Even though doctors suggested surgery to remove the tumor causing her rapid growth,
03:24Zheng decided to keep it.
03:26She didn't want to lose her hair.
03:28She was quite the foodie too, eating tons of dumplings and rice each day to fuel her body.
03:34Sadly, health issues caught up with her, and she passed away in 1982.
03:38Her height was recorded as 8 feet 2 inches.
03:42She beat out Jane Bunford for the title of the tallest woman to ever walk the earth,
03:47and even had a moment as the tallest person alive from 1981 to 1982.
03:53By the way, Jane Bunford was the tallest recognized British person known to date.
03:58At a height of 7 feet 11 inches, she definitely stood out in a crowd.
04:03Born in Birmingham in 1895, Jane was an average Jane until 11 years old.
04:10At that age, she had an accident that changed her life forever.
04:14A head injury damaged her pituitary gland, causing an excess of growth hormone to send her height skyrocketing.
04:21Due to discomfort caused by her gigantic size, she had to drop out of school.
04:26Although she had opportunities to profit from her unique stature, Jane chose to live a quiet life.
04:32In her final years, she became a recluse due to the unwanted attention her height brought.
04:38Battling joint issues and a severe spinal curvature, Jane passed away at the age of 26.
04:46Hey, I have a quick question for you.
04:48Is height something that can change or not?
04:51It seems like we actually do get a little taller during the day and shrink back down at night.
04:56Let's thank gravity for this.
04:58But there was this one crazy case where a guy named Adam Rayner was super short at 21, only 3
05:05feet and 10.5 inches.
05:07But then, he suddenly started growing like crazy.
05:10By the time he was 32, he was 7 feet 1.75 inches tall.
05:16Unfortunately, all that growth happened so fast that he ended up bedridden for life and didn't become a basketball star.
05:25Socks can be a real hassle for tall people.
05:28Don Kohler, who wore size 22 shoes, once said his biggest clothing issue was finding socks that fit.
05:35Luckily, he found a company in Pennsylvania that made custom socks for him.
05:40Don was really tall, one of only 24 people in history to reach over 8 feet tall.
05:46He was known as the world's tallest man from 1969 until he passed away in 1981, having grown to 8
05:53feet 2 inches.
05:54He had a condition called gigantism, which made him grow abnormally starting from the age of 10.
06:00Don was born in Denton, Montana to parents who were taller than average.
06:04He had a twin sister, but she was 5 feet 9 inches.
06:08It was a record-breaking height difference of 2 foot 5 in between twins, as recognized by the Guinness World
06:15Records.
06:16Don worked as a salesman for 25 years using his height as an advantage when meeting with customers.
06:22If you, too, wear a larger shoe size, you know how frustrating trying to find the perfect pair can be.
06:28Trenje Kiever from the Netherlands definitely understood the struggle.
06:32Born in 1616, she is rumored to be the tallest woman in history, standing at 9 Amsterdam feet.
06:40Sadly, she passed away at just 17 years old.
06:43Her original shoes, which were over 14 inches in length, European size 54 or American size 22, are still on
06:52display.
06:53Her parents even took her to carnivals to make money by showing her off.
06:57Trenje first gained attention when she was 9 years old.
07:01At that time, she was already 6 foot 7 inches tall.
07:05A royal group, including the Bohemian king and his family, visited her in the Hague.
07:10Curious about the 9-year-old girl taller than every man in Europe.
07:15The Netherlands is home to some seriously tall folks, with the average height of its residence being 6 feet.
07:21The U.S. may have produced some behemoths in the past, but the current titles for the tallest man and
07:26woman are held by Turkey.
07:29Meet Rumesa Gelci, Turkey's towering treasure and Guinness World Records queen.
07:34At 24, this 7 foot tall lady is not just the tallest woman alive, but also a front-end web
07:41developer, crime novel enthusiast and swimming pro.
07:45Overcoming challenges with Weaver Syndrome, she's a fighter and a voice for rare conditions.
07:52As of 2024, Sultan Khosin is the world's tallest living man.
07:57Back in 2009, he shot to fame when he was measured by the Guinness World Records.
08:02He was 8 feet 1 inches tall.
08:05Can you believe that?
08:06Only a handful of people in history have ever reached that height.
08:09This Turkish farmer didn't start sprouting up until he was 10 years old.
08:13And get this, everyone in his family is of average height except for him.
08:18He has a condition called pituitary gigantism.
08:22Being super tall definitely has its pros and cons for Sultan.
08:26He could easily help his mom with household tasks, but shopping for clothes and squeezing into a regular-sized car
08:32can be a real challenge.
08:34And playing professional basketball?
08:36Not in the cards, as he's just too tall for the courts.
08:39Sultan also holds the record for the largest hands on a living person.
08:47Now, we wouldn't call this island mystical unless there were tales of giants living here.
08:52The island of Gauzo in Malta is the backdrop of an ancient legend.
08:58Malta is an island country located in the Mediterranean Sea, just south of Europe.
09:03It's a very strategically located archipelago.
09:05Throughout history, it was ruled by many different societies, such as the Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, and Carthaginians.
09:13One cold night, thousands of years ago, a farmer noticed the sky turn orange, then red, when he heard a
09:21loud thump.
09:22Although the ground seemed to be moving, this wasn't an earthquake.
09:25When he looked toward the woods, he saw a giant silhouette, taller than the trees.
09:31As he fearfully approached, he realized it was a woman, a giant woman.
09:36She introduced herself as Sansuna.
09:39Unlike the terrible giants of many tales, Sansuna didn't want to exterminate the human race.
09:45She was loving and caring.
09:47She told the farmer that she and her people could help protect their land from invaders.
09:51The locals were pretty interested in this offer.
09:55Since Malta is located in an important commercial route, it was constantly being invaded.
10:02The story says that Sansuna settled in Malta.
10:06And sooner rather than later, she was moving things around.
10:09And when I say things, I mean monoliths.
10:12Sansuna carried huge stones on her shoulder to build a magnificent temple called Gigatia, which means place of giants.
10:20She even did this while holding her half-giant, half-human kid on the other shoulder.
10:25Some say Sansuna lived exclusively on beans and honey, although others replaced honey with water.
10:32The funniest bit here is that Malta is the 10th smallest country in the world.
10:36But it somehow managed to host giants.
10:39Hey, go figure.
10:41The temple looked like a giant game of Tetris, with some stones weighing as much as 20 elephants.
10:47Some of these monolithic rocks are so heavy, scholars guess it would take 50 men working together to lift just
10:54one stone.
10:55Now, as much as this is entertaining, humans never proved giants were real.
11:00So this story couldn't be true.
11:02There's a brief mention of a species of giants called the Nephilim in some ancient texts.
11:07The Nephilim would have been terrible giants that wreaked havoc on the Earth and only survived until the Great Flood.
11:14But nobody ever found real proof of this species really existing on Earth.
11:19Until this came along.
11:21The world of Maltese archaeology unearthed quite a few shocking things in the past years.
11:27One of them are known as the Hypogeum skulls.
11:30Hypogeum is the Greek word for underground, and this incredible site was discovered in the first decade of the 20th
11:36century.
11:37Back then, Malta's National Museum director received an important phone call.
11:42Someone had accidentally dug some impressive bones and asked him to come check it out.
11:48The Hypogeum looked like an underground city, filled with mazes and rooms that stretched along multiple floors.
11:54They were all made with similar limestones, as the Maltese temples above ground.
11:59The Hypogeum was filled with important relics and artifacts.
12:03Scientists quickly understood that the Hypogeum was built as a type of final resting place for locals.
12:09So, along with skulls, they found a lot of bones and skeletons.
12:13One of these artifacts were skulls.
12:16But these weren't regular human skulls.
12:18Rather, they were of the elongated type.
12:21To make matters worse, these skulls were hidden from the public for years.
12:25People started to talk and created a bunch of theories behind it.
12:29The truth is that this discovery was a turning point for Maltese archaeology,
12:34although scientists didn't know what to do with it.
12:37Some wondered if these skulls were natural or manipulated,
12:40since they knew some cultures in the world used headbinds to alter their skulls.
12:45Other scientists threw in the hypothesis of little grey people or even the legendary giants.
12:51Some say that the elongated skulls could have been sculptures that worshipped otherworldly deities.
12:57There was no way to confirm any of these theories.
13:00So, the question remained.
13:02Who were the builders of Malta's megalithic temples?
13:06Now, let's take a look at what scientists know.
13:08The Maltese megalithic temples have been standing strong since 3500 BCE,
13:14which is even older than the pyramids of Egypt.
13:17The main dilemma here is that these temples were built even before we invented writing,
13:22yet they required advanced technological skills to exist.
13:26The Gigantia Temple seems too absurd to have been built by humans.
13:30The South Temple has a corridor with four oval rooms on the sides, looking like a big shamrock leaf.
13:37In one of these rooms, scientists found altars, decorated with spiral patterns.
13:42It looked like an altar of some sort, indicating early Maltese people used them for ritualistic purposes.
13:49The North Temple is similar but smaller, with a very low entrance that makes people crouch down to get inside.
13:56You get it?
13:57You need to bow down to their deities in order to get into this sacred place.
14:01I mean, one can't help but wonder about the secret reasons these ancient builders had to build such a huge
14:07temple.
14:08I'm thinking they probably cast one of Daenerys' dragons to move the monoliths around.
14:13I'm joking here.
14:14But hey, remember the entrance to King's Landing?
14:16Yup, the series used the Medina gates in Malta as the exterior of King's Landing during Episode 3 of Season
14:231.
14:25Anyways, back to the giants.
14:27The ritualistic theory of the whole thing won a few points when archaeologists uncovered these mysterious figures.
14:34They're popularly known as fat ladies.
14:37These tiny statues have round bodies and faces that show how much they enjoyed life.
14:42They kind of look like a miniature Sunsana, the giantess we talked about.
14:46Scientists believe these were statues that celebrated well-being and prosperity.
14:51It does prove that the people of the time had advanced craftsmanship skills, and they were pretty intentional with their
14:58constructions and art manifestations.
15:00One of these statues is known as the Sleeping Lady.
15:04This Neolithic piece of art depicts the figure of a large woman lying on her side, sleeping.
15:09After studying it deeper, scientists guessed this statue was meant to represent the Great Reaper.
15:16It was found in the Hypogeum, which we now know was a huge resting place.
15:21This specific statue is different from all the other fat ladies, starting with the hair and the embroidered skirt.
15:27Then there's this statue.
15:29This is supposed to represent an 8-foot-tall woman and the rim of her skirt.
15:34She was discovered in the most unusual of ways.
15:37A farmer was trying to plow his field, but he kept hitting large blocks of stone.
15:42All the way back in 1915, the farmer called Malta's national museum director and asked him to come check it
15:49out.
15:49Some think this is all the proof you need to confirm that Sunsana was real.
15:54Others aren't all that sure.
15:57But that's not all.
15:58The place where this giant statue was buried revealed one of Malta's most impressive archaeological sites.
16:05The Tarjan temples.
16:07The temples were made from lined stone blocks.
16:09Some are 20 feet tall and weigh around 20 tons.
16:13Zamet, the museum director, kept digging and discovered multiple sites made of megalithic stones.
16:19All of them, supposedly built by Stone Age farmers, all stranded on a remote island in the Mediterranean Sea thousands
16:26of years ago.
16:27It just doesn't make sense.
16:29I mean, look at these temples in Menedra.
16:31This is probably the world's earliest calendar.
16:34On the equinoxes, the Sun passes directly through the main doorway, straight down the central axis.
16:40On the solstices, there are two superb variations.
16:44During the summer solstice, the rays fall on the edge of the megalith to the left of the doorway.
16:49And during the winter, the rays fall to the right side of the doorway.
16:53It's astronomical precision at its finest.
16:57And what about the structures in the Hall Tarsian that we've already talked about?
17:01This complex is the oldest one in all of Malta.
17:05It was built with the purpose of doing animal offerings to deities.
17:08Scientists confirmed this by unearthing numerous animal bones buried in the soil.
17:13They also found a great collection of spirals, indicating that the locals also used this temple for ritualistic purposes.
17:21Overall, there are seven megalithic temples in Malta, each more impressive than the other.
17:27Scholars keep on digging to see if they can uncover the truth, much like researchers do with the pyramids of
17:33Egypt,
17:33the lost Mayan cities in the Americas, and other sites.
17:39GDF почти 2039, almost presently.
17:40GDF West
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