If you look at the Giant's Causeway from above, then it really resembles a stone-paved pavement and even a honeycomb.
As soon as this area is not called in Northern Ireland! Trail of the Giants, The Pavement of the Giants, The Road of the Giants. This place amazes not only with its size, but also with a mysterious legend of origin. According to Irish legend, once the warrior Finn McCumalo was going to fight the giant Hall, who lived across the sea. Finn decided to build a bridge across it to get to Hall's house. He hewed out with a sword and hammered into sea bottom stone columns. When Finn was tired, he lay down to rest and fell asleep. At this time, the giant himself came to him.
But Finn's wife was cunning. She passed off her sleeping husband for her son. She told Hall that she was expecting a husband and began to treat the giant to flatbreads with iron pans baked in them. When Finn woke up, his wife also gave him tortillas, but without the pans. Hall was frightened when he saw how quickly the child eats them. He imagined how huge his father must be, and started to run. The bridge could not bear the weight of the giant and broke.
But that was the legend. And from a scientific point of view, the origin of the Giant's Road can be explained as follows. About 60 million years ago, this territory erupted powerful volcanoes... They raised columns of ash into the sky and threw boiling magma to the surface of the earth. Cooling down, the magma turned into lava. Columns are vertical cracks formed during the solidification of the lava. Moreover, the slower the magma cooled, the higher the columns were obtained.
Today, the Giant's Causeway is National Reserve Northern Ireland and a UNESCO heritage site. The columns here reach a height of 6-12 meters, and their length is 275 meters. Researchers have counted about 40,000 of these pillars that enter the water Atlantic Ocean 150 meters. The diameter of the columns is on average 30-50 centimeters. They have flat tops and several edges, which have from 4 to 9 corners. Facets were also formed as a result of natural geodetic processes.
If you look at the Giant's Causeway from above, then it really resembles a stone pavement and even a honeycomb. All columns are dark in color and incredibly solid. This is due to the fact that the pillars are composed of basalt rich in magnesium and iron, which contains a small amount of quartz. Such a composition helps the columns to successfully withstand the destructive effects of winds and stormy waves of the Atlantic Ocean.
The Giant's Causeway consists of three sites. The first is the Great Path. In this area, there are the tallest columns, originating from the rocky mountains. They resemble a cluster of huge stone steps. Closer to the water, the steps align and form stone road, the width of which is 20 - 30 meters. The second site is the Middle and Small trails. They are located at the Great Path and resemble mounds in shape. Moreover, each column has a flat top, which makes it possible to carefully move from one pillar to another.
The third platform with a column is already on the Staffa Island at a distance of 130 meters from the main coast and is a continuation of the unique formations. There is a huge Fingal's cave on the island. Its height reaches 30 meters, and its length is 75 meters. The cave has an indescribable acoustics. Waves beating on the coast of the island create magical music in its hall, therefore Fingal's cave is also called "Singing". By the way, the island of Staffa is already considered the territory of Scotland.
Folk legend throughout Finland and some parts of Karelia ascribes the belonging to the non-Finnish people, which in ancient times inhabited all of Finland, belonged to the still-preserved burial stone piles and barrows. northern part Scandinavia and even Karelia in the present territories of the Kemsky and Olonetsky provinces. The Finnish name for this ancient people is Hiishi. It is under the name of Hiishi that this ancient people in the legends of the Finns was known as giants who possessed gigantic strength.
With the beginning of systematic travel and geographical discoveries all earth up Of the White Sea and then it became known, there was a need to create ethnographic maps, indicating the nationalities living in these territories, the "country of giants" has always been associated with ideas about the north. 
"White Sea" is a Russian name, travelers who came in the Middle Ages to the mouth of the Northern Dvina, which flows into the White Sea, have already found this name, this is indicated by the designation of the sea on the map of the most famous 16th century cartographer Mercator. By the end of the 17th century, Russian name Of the White Sea, although in ancient times I was called Gandvik (among the Scandinavians it meant "Bay of Monsters").
An excerpt from one of the saga about the discovery of Norway begins like this: "Forniot (meaning" the giant of former times ") was the king's name: he ruled over Jotland, as Finland was then called, and Quenlandt. This king was Nora's great-grandfather, but we do not know other details about him." ...
As they settled in the northern territories, the giants went further and further north. The Danish historian Saxon Grammaticus (1140-1206) mentions that "the giants have now retired to those deserts that lie on the other side of Gandwick, to the north of Norway." Many nationalities (Finns, Swedes, Sami, Karelians) have preserved the memory of resettlement " giant people"in the old days.
The Arab historian Ibn-Fadlan, at the beginning of the X century, having learned that "there is some extraordinary giant in the Itil Bulgar", turned with a request to the Bulgar king himself. The king replied that there really was such a giant in his country, but he died; and he was not one of his people and "not real man”. "And he was twelve cubits (about six meters) tall, his head was as big as a cauldron, a huge nose, enormous eyes and fingers. He was from the peoples of the world. I saw his bones - they are of immense size," Ibn Fadlan wrote ...
The Arab traveler, scientist and theologian of the beginning of the XI century Abu Hamid Andalusi also visited the capital of the Volga Bulgaria and met there the same giant from the Adogite tribe, but only alive. "He took a horse under his arm, like a man takes a little lamb. And his strength was such that he calmly broke the horse's leg with his hand and tore the meat and sinews like others tear greens," Andalusi pointed out.
All - the ancestors of the present Vepsians - began to occupy the territory of Karelia by the end of the 1st - the beginning of the 2nd millennium AD. NS. The first information about Vesi in Russian written sources dates back to 859. 
In the 6th century A.D. the Gothic historian Jornand wrote about the lands located to the east of the Scandinavian Peninsula that "inside this land there is a very vast lake, from which, like from the belly, the river Vah emerges and rolls swiftly towards the Ocean."
On this territory, according to Jornand, "various nationalities live, including the Chud, and even further to the east - the Adogites."
We are talking about Ladoga, about which the Russian historian I. Zabelin wrote later, noted that "in the east of Scandinavia, the most big lake Ladoga, from which, indeed, as from the womb, it rolls its waters into the Ocean, that is, into The Gulf of Finland, Neva River. In addition, Lake Ladoga connects with the Onega River Svir, and the Vyg River flows not far from Lake Onega, flowing into and out of the large Lake Vyg, as well as from the womb, flowing into the White Sea and the Ocean. "
According to the legends of the Lapland elders, "there was once a giant named Valit in Korel and in all the Korel land. And that fell on Korel's possession from the Novgorod mayor. He was a burly man himself, a military man and an extraordinary hunter." Once, "for his glory, having brought it from the shore, he put a stone with his own hands, and now there is more than a slanting fathom high above the ground. That stone is known to this day as a" Fell stone ". 
Legends about giants can still be heard in remote corners of Karelia. The most interesting of them are the legends about the Paivie clan, which originated "from Korela, which is rich in songs". Of Paivie's three sons, Olof was the most famous. As proof of Olof's strength, the following story is passed down from generation to generation: “Once Olof was returning from a fishing trip and was overtaken by bad weather. Fearing to row against the waves that threatened to sink his boat, loaded with nets and fish, he decided to land ashore. the boat on my shoulders and carried it on myself. "
Another story about Olof: “Once Olof walked through the forest, he saw Began struggling to lift a stone. his ambush, laughed at the impotence of Stalo and moved the stone to the place where it should have been. "
"It became" in these stories among the ancient Karelians is the yatte (giant) of the Swedes and Hiisi Finns. They became usually depicted as a wild tribe, during pagan times they lived in the present territories of Lapland and northern Karelia, after the introduction of Christianity and the arrival of Novgorodians, they retired to the still untouched taiga. 
The book of the outstanding Russian ethnographer and archaeologist Theodor Schvindt "Folk legends of the northwestern Ladoga area, collected in the summer of 1879" provides unique information about the "giants ancient land Korelskaya. ”“ On the Ladoga coast, ”writes T. Schvindt,“ there is a legend that once upon a time huge people lived in these places, the so-called metelilainens, or munkkilainens, who were gradually ousted from here by the Lapps and Finns. ” the incredible noise they made while moving through the forest, which is where their name actually comes from (from the word "meteli" - noise).
"The legends of the snowstorms," T. Schvindt further points out, "have survived almost everywhere, but there are especially many of them in the Kurkiyoki volost (now the village of Kurkiyoki, Lahdenpohskiy district). Probably because in some places there is a lot of real evidence of the activities of giant people: this and fields cleared of forests, and from time to time huge human bones found in the ground, and plows thrown by snowstorms, as well as huge ramparts in the mountains and on the islands "... 
The giant wanted to communicate not with people, but at least with fish. Drawing by Asya Belyaeva.
Once upon a time there was a Giant on the Island.
He lived completely alone: there were no people or other giants nearby. Only Akchinuk will sometimes run up, sniff - has the Giant prepared something tasty? But then he remembers that the Giant does not eat anything but earth and fog, snorts, barks out of frustration and runs on to himself.
The Giant had already studied all the constellations, he already knew by heart the voice of any of the birds and distinguished the steps of each in the numerous Akchinuk family.
But he had no one to talk to, and he thought it was probably interesting to talk to someone.
But he had no one to sing a song, and he was very fond of singing songs - about the Island, about the Ocean, about birds and fish, about everything he was used to.
Then the Giant decided to call people from another - small - island. And he said to them: “I will help you build houses, I will find you a tree for kayaks, I will protect you and your dwellings from strong wind, just come and live with me. "
People thought and decided to keep the Giant company - after all, he will build a whole village for them! House after house appeared on the shores of the Ocean, and people came and occupied houses, and started a household.
The giant was glad that there was so much pleasant bustle, laughter, and voices around him. People were glad that they had their own giant.
So the Giant lived with people for a long, long time. He slept at night, and when the sun rose, he chased sleepy seagulls from his eyelashes and began his giants' day: he ate the earth and fog, watched people, composed songs. In a word, I didn’t get bored.
His hands were such that he easily reached the clouds, tickled them with the claw of his little finger so that they shivered, laughed, sneezed - and at once spilled out all their rain. And that is what the Giant needs: most of all he loved to drink fresh rain, right from under the cloud.
His legs were such that he could easily have stepped over the entire Island - from north to south, but only he did not step over: what would he do there, alone, on the other side of the Island, without people?
The village, built by the Giant, has grown: now wherever you look, there are houses, bustle, and only in the evening nets gather, birds hide in nests, voices become quieter. But as soon as the Giant takes a step, everyone looks at him with displeasure, they say, can't you see that there are people around? But as soon as the Giant starts talking about something, everyone swears: "Why are you shouting - scaring children?" New people were born in the village, grew up, died, and then others were born. And the more time passed since the day the Giant called people, the more their displeasure became: “Look, the Giant! Lives here in our village! It prevents us: such a huge one - you can't cover it in a hundred girths, you can't get around it in a day! "
People in the village often played games: they made a ladder made of inflated fish bubbles - the most dexterous and courageous had to go along it, then they competed in accuracy and shot from a bow, then they measured strength. But they never took the Giant into their games, and it hurt him. Once, at a winter festival, when everyone was singing and beating tambourines, the Giant could not resist and began to dance. And then the earth trembled, and the people fled and no longer wanted to see the Giant in their village.
Go, - they say, - pick up, hello,
He so did not want to live alone, and then he thought that at the bottom of the ocean he would probably be fine: there are many different fish - large and not very, fast and slow, bright and the color of northern clouds. There, at the bottom, he will be calm, and no one will drive him out, and he will begin to coexist in amicable terms - not with people, but with fish.
And here he lies at the bottom, watching the colorful fish movement. At first, the fish liked that they had such a Giant - in his long hair you can make a house and raise small fish, you can hide behind his body from all the big hungry.
But one day the Giant wanted to roll over on the other side. And he, unwillingly, made a real commotion. Pisces rebelled: “Why raise waves for no reason? You lie to yourself and lie like a stone! "
But one day the Giant wanted to look at the sun. He emerged from the Ocean, collected the sun's rays and released them at the bottom. The ocean lit up, and the half-blind deep-sea fishes narrowed their eyes and gurgled in displeasure: “What a disgrace! Who invented this so that the sun would shine at the very bottom of the Ocean? "
But one day the Giant wanted to eat the land. And he - handful by handful - began to eat the bottom, and stirred up the water, and the water became cloudy. And the colorful fish swear: “Who will see our outfits now? Who can see us in such muddy water? "
And the fish gathered for the all-ocean council, and decided to drive the Giant from the bottom - back to land. They chose an ambassador - the prince of all salmon - Chinook, so that he would inform the Giant about their decision:
Swim, - mumbled, - pick up, hello,
Yes, so that we do not see you again!
The giant did not believe the words of the salmon prince and said: "Let those fish who really want me to return to land forever, be pulled out by a hair from my head." The fish rushed about, huddled in flocks, but little by little, one after another, they began to swim up to the Giant and pull out a hair as a sign that it was time for him to leave them, fishy, Ocean. And they let his long hair through the water, and his hair grew with algae, in which flocks of fish, large and not very, variegated and different, settled.
And so they pulled on the giant hairs that he had none left. The Giant realized that he would not be able to have a friendly neighborhood with the fish, returned to the shore, sat down on the black sand. He sat down and thought: “I didn't need to go to the fish without asking. But now I know that there is no need to go to the fish without asking. " He ran his hand over his bald head and came up with a new song:
How can I be now? Day and night
A gray loneliness follows me everywhere.
I tell him: "Listen, where are you from here?"
And it blinks in response - gray and deaf.
I told him: "Go away," I say, "over the mountain, over the river, into the field!"
And it is all silent, silent, gray and blind.
The giant sat by the ocean for a while, thinking about people and fish. Suddenly a joyful Ara flew past him: “What, Giant, are you sad? Come to us on the Aryan island - we are always noisy and fun! " Last words The macaws reached the great ears with the wind, and the wind itself was gone.
“Well,” said the Giant to himself, “maybe the birds will accept me,” and set off for a noisy, bustling, restless bird island.
At first, the birds were glad that a rock-man appeared on their island, that they could make nests on it, hide from the weather, and, unlike a real rock, it is always warm! And the Giant gladly presented his body to the birds - so that they would be warm and comfortable.
But one day he wanted to drink the rain, stood under a large black cloud - and the birds did not like it very much: "On the real rock, it may be cooler, but definitely drier!"
But one day he wanted to stretch his legs - and the birds liked it even less: "Nothing shakes in a real rock, and everything is calm in the nests!"
But one day he wanted to sing a song - and the birds didn't like it at all: “Here's another! Not a single real rock will allow itself to wail louder than us birds! "
And then the birds decided to drive the Giant away.
They chirp: "Fly to the pick-up, hello,
Yes, so that we do not see you again! "
First they pecked him in the right palm, then in the left, and blood began to flow, and the Giant was in pain. Carefully so that not a single chick fell, he removed the bird's nests from his bald head and shoulders.
“It's hard for them, the birds, with me,” thought the Giant and went back to his Island. And as he walked, drops of blood fell to the ground and rose like berries.
He went to the bank of the river, sniffed: "Akchinuk ran here recently." The giant didn't want to go anywhere else. He looked at the footprints of Akchinuk in the snow. They minced, paw by paw. A little further away, they were joined by other footprints, still others, and even further away an entire trampled clearing could be seen, and it was no longer clear where whose footprints were on it.
Cormorant-Talker flew past him and disappeared in a cloud that looked like a big slow fish. After him another Cormorant appeared and, flying over the ears of the Giant, asked:
Hey! Big eyes! Have you seen where my brother flew to?
The giant said nothing and only pointed in the direction of the cloud-fish. The cloud-fish floated across the sky along with its reflection, which floated across the ocean.
“I would also like to have brothers and sisters, and many, many others,” thought the Giant.
And then he took a sip of fog, washed it down with rain and began to dig a big, big hole. When the matter was over, the Giant lay down in this pit and covered himself with earth and snow. And many months later, rejoicing in the sun, his body sprouted with huge beautiful mushrooms - which do not grow anywhere except on the Island. And there are so many of them that, no matter how much you collect, it does not decrease. Come and see for yourself.
Of course, in fairy tales, folk tales and legends. Even in some ancient manuscripts and even in sacred books, you can read about them. For example, in myths Ancient Greece, in the Iliad and Odyssey, in the Bible and in the Koran. There are many descriptions of giants, cyclops, various evil spirits, heroes, in a word, huge characters, not similar to us. One of the most famous historical characters is the giant Goliath, who was more than three meters tall. Subsequently, King David fought with him and won.
In our area there is a legend that giant people not only lived on the banks of mighty rivers and in the mountains, but even after death they still continue to grow underground. Allegedly, in ancient cemeteries, near dilapidated mazars, huge skeletons are found, the bones of the legs of which are stretched four meters from the skull.
It was believed that all this is a fantasy, an invention. No clever historian will accept a fact as scientific, relying only on ancient traditions. Give them, historians, evidence - bones from burial mounds, shards, jewelry, ruins of giant buildings. Well, at least a huge tooth or jaw of a giant, which from time to time is found in different parts Sveta.
Archaeological finds different years confirm: on the Earth in ancient times there lived giant people. There is evidence of finds of the remains of giants in almost all parts of the world: in Mexico, Peru, Tunisia, Pennsylvania, Texas, the Philippines, Syria, Morocco, Australia, Spain, Georgia, in South-East Asia, on the islands of Oceania - everywhere there are such artifacts and there are legends like ours. You can believe in them or not believe in them.
Fairy tales? But here in Kazakhstan not long ago archaeologists made a sensational discovery. They found skeletons of two-meter people in the Aktobe region. These, of course, are not four-meter monsters, but still, they are not our average height from 160 to 170 cm.
Kazakh scientists immediately came to the conclusion that in ancient times giants actually lived on the territory of our republic. In their opinion, the age of the archaeological site "Kumsay", where excavations are carried out and the skeletons of giants were found, is more than 4 thousand years. This is the time of transition from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age. Scientists have counted more than 160 mounds there. So many in Eurasia have never been found anywhere. If there is a giant in each kurgan, it will be possible to consider that in ancient times there was really a country of giants between the Caspian and Aral. And if so far only two have been found, then what a rarity here! There, in the Guinness Book of Records, two-meter giants are constantly competing, which of them is more than centimeters in height. Each country has its own giant. Now in the Book there are a dozen heroes with a height of more than 2 meters.
A couple of years ago, in the Caucasus, in the mountains of the Borjomi Gorge, Georgian archaeologists also discovered the remains of mysterious creatures, about which they have been making legends for centuries. locals... The bones of fossil Caucasians belong to giant people who lived 25 thousand years ago. Georgian archaeologists claim that the height of their giant ancestor could be from 2.5 to 3 meters.
From all the legends about giants, you can get a big picture. First, the giants, according to legends, possessed incredible strength. It is thanks to them that the world received many giant monuments, such as the Tibetan City of the Gods, Stonehenge, Teotiukan, Egyptian Sphinx etc. For example, in Lebanon, at the base of the Baalbek terrace, there are three huge blocks, each 800 tons. They were adjusted to each other with amazing accuracy - to the millimeter. And this is a daunting task even for the most modern construction equipment. Just to move one such block, it would take the effort of more than 40 thousand people. Who could have built such a gigantic structure by hand if not giants ?!
Secondly, also according to legends, the giants possessed such knowledge, to the level of which modern science has not yet reached. For example, Atlas, who opened the mysteries of astronomy to people, which is why he was immortalized in the image of a strong man who supports the globe. True, now these same qualities are usually attributed to aliens who allegedly once visited the earth, built gigantic structures and shared knowledge with earthlings. Our ancestors themselves, apparently, were well stupid! They could not think of anything!
A height of two meters and a few more centimeters is a lot. But it's not that rare either. For example, Peter the Great and his associate Lefort were just that - more than 2 meters tall. They write about Peter in different ways: he was 204 cm, then 240. Obviously, no one approached the tsar with his yardstick. But in the museum "Peter's House" there is his bed - very large!
The king clearly had health problems. Usually tall men have a large foot, and the two-meter Peter's leg was only 39 sizes, which is why Peter, although he was Great, was unstable - he walked with a cane (he often beat bribe-takers with it), stumbled and even fell. Now the majority of our contemporaries wear such shoes as his. It turns out that this is the most common women's shoe size in the world - 39th.
The famous boxer Nikolai Valuev's height is almost the same as that of Peter the Great - 213 cm, but the shoe size is proportional - 52 (paradoxically, but the mythical Bigfoot Yeti, judging by the footprints, has a smaller foot).
The boxer also refutes the assertion that the heroes are not distinguished by their intelligence. Nikolai is a deputy of the State Duma, a cheerful and witty TV presenter from the United Russia party.
Information that all tall are strong men is doubtful. On the contrary, doctors say that modern giants usually grow up as a result of a brain disease, and their bones, and especially joints, do not support the enormous weight and also suffer. Many heroes walk on crutches, and by old age they suffer from various diseases and rarely any of them live long.
However, not all tall people are necessarily sick. The growth of a person, among other things, is influenced by environmental factors, sometimes - and inherited from the parents of the disease. Growth can be influenced by belonging to a particular race or nation. For example, the average height of urban Chinese is 165 cm (for men) and 155 cm (for women), and the average height of the Dutch is 178.7 cm and 168.7 cm, respectively. Living conditions, in particular, food, are of great importance. For example, prosperous South Koreans are on average 7 cm taller than North Koreans living in poverty.
In films, knights-heroes are often shown. Meanwhile, their armor preserved in castles and museums is very small. Our contemporary, even of average height, cannot wear them. Such a "hero" sat on a horse with the help of servants.
Like all people, giants are not alien to anything human. Almost all of them dream of a soul mate, which, with their enormous growth, is difficult to find and charm. For example, a resident of Mongolia Bao Khishun (height 2.36 m), only at the age of 56, met his life partner, with whom he had a wedding. The wife of the giant was a 29-year-old Chinese woman, who, with a height of 1.68 meters, barely reaches the elbow of her chosen one. Bao Hishun became famous for saving the lives of two dolphins from the Chinese dolphinarium. With his long arms, he pulled the plastic bags that were stuck there from the throats of the marine mammals.
At home big people experience a lot of inconvenience. Clothes of large sizes are sewn, but usually only in the USA, where there are many tall and fat people. They have feet up to size 60, but where can I get such shoes? In the suitcase department?
Airplane seats, train compartments, hotel furniture, door openings, bathrooms and showers are all designed for middle-aged people. A giant can only get into a car by hunched over.
President of Ukraine V. Yushchenko and Mayor of Kiev V. Klitschko How to straighten up on the bus? In addition, most giants have serious health problems. Both ordinary people and historians, especially physicians, have always been interested in this mystery of nature - gigantism. But not all the reasons for it are revealed.
Lovers of all sorts of ratings, Americans have recently found out that they have ceased to be the highest in the world: they are ahead of Europeans, or rather, residents Northern Europe- Dutch, Norwegians, Danes and Germans. American growth is declining for the first time in 300 years, while European growth is clearly increasing. Today, the Netherlands holds the upper hand, where men are 4.7 cm taller than Americans and women 5.7 cm taller than Americans. Americans with a height of 179 cm dropped to 4th place in the ranking, but they are the most well-fed. The Italians take an even lower position with 174.5 cm. The French are ahead of them.
Among Kazakhstanis, two heroes were especially famous: the famous Kazakh wrestler and circus artist Khadzhimukan Munaitpasov (1871-1948), and in the 50s of the last century he impressed the fans with his height - 236 cm. - basketball player Uvais Akhtaev. He was the best center in the USSR, and maybe in the world, given that at that time there were no players even two meters tall in the country.
Khadzhimukan Munaitpasov, although he stood out among his not very tall fellow countrymen, nevertheless was “only” 195 cm tall, weighed 139 kg, and his shoe size was 54. But he was beautifully built and strong, and was not famous at all for his tall stature. Khadzhimukan is the first Kazakh who won the title of world champion in French wrestling, won many times in world, Russian, regional, and then all-Union championships in classic wrestling among super heavyweights.
It is generally accepted that heroes are kind and sympathetic people. The strongman Khadzhimukan was just that. He founded the first professional theater in the history of Kazakhstan, from which many eminent artists of that time emerged. And already the elderly, during the Great Patriotic War participating in various championships, he collected money and presented the front with an aircraft named after Amangeldy Imanov.
Of the Soviet female giants, the most famous is the famous basketball player Ulyana Semenova, who was born in Latvia in 1952 and has a height of 2 meters 13 centimeters. Russian Ekaterina Gamova, who has twice won silver Olympic medals as part of the volleyball team, is 7 cm lower than Semenova - her height is 2 meters 6 centimeters. Katya is the daughter-in-law of actress and director Svetlana Druzhinina and cinematographer Anatoly Mukasey.
No “heroes” were found among Kazakhstani women. Although we have tall girls, but the wits call the tallest "lady" in Kazakhstan the champion in height ... the chimney of the Ekibastuz GRES-2, which is 419.7 m high. This "young lady" was built in 1987 and is still pore is the tallest chimney in the world.
Interesting Facts:
* The ancient historian Herodotus wrote that the soldiers of Sparta wore the skeleton of the giant Orestes on the shaft during military campaigns. The skeleton reached 3.5 meters.
* In the books of Pausanias, it is said that in Syria, a human skeleton was raised from the bottom of the Sront River, which reached 5.5 meters.
* There is information about the four-meter skeleton in a medieval book called "History and Greed". This skeleton was found in military attire, and not far from it, a huge sword and ax were found.
* In 1912, red-haired three-meter mummies were found in the state of Nevada in the United States.
* In Turkey in the 1950s, road builders accidentally stumbled upon skeletons with only the femur bones measuring 120 cm.
* In southern Mongolia in 1999, a fossilized skeleton of a giant was found by British paleontologists. The length of the bones of his legs reached 7 meters, and the total height of the giant was 15 meters.
* Archaeologist Ralph von Koeningswald in Hong Kong in 1935 discovered human teeth, the size of which was 5 times the size of the teeth of an ordinary person.
* On the island of Ponape in the 1970s, an American expedition of archaeologists from the ground raised skeletons of people that were twice the size of modern humans.
* Not all of these amazing finds saved and available to researchers. Some have disappeared, others are in the storerooms of museums. However, most scientists do not take the legends about giants seriously.
About human height
* During the day, a person's height changes by an average of 0.5-1 cm. The greatest growth occurs immediately after sleep: during the day, the intervertebral discs settle, and during the night they restore their original height.
* Astronauts' height increases by 5-8 centimeters during long-term stay in zero gravity. However, this is quite dangerous as the spine loses its strength. After returning to Earth, growth gradually returns to its previous value.
* On average, men grow up to 18-25 years old, and women - up to 16-19 years old.
* In general, humanity is gradually "growing". If 50 years ago the average height was 165 cm, now it is 2.5 cm more. On average, its weight has also increased by about a kilogram. In adolescents, the changes are even more noticeable. The average height of a modern teenager is 3-5 centimeters more than his peer of the 30s.
* An epochal change in human growth is called acceleration. For example, Neanderthals hardly differed in height from modern humans (160-165 cm). In the Middle Ages, the growth of a person began to decline. But over the past 100 years, human body length has increased dramatically.
* By itself, high growth is not yet a sign of gigantism - a serious illness caused by excessive production of growth hormone. Healthy people with gigantic growth (200 cm and more) differ from people of average height only by their height. And people who are sick with gigantism also differ in proportions.
High is smart?
At various times, researchers have tried to establish a relationship between growth and the talents of different people. But it was not possible to deduce the patterns. It turned out that there are a lot of "kids" among geniuses, which is explained by their exaggerated demands on themselves, ambitions and the desire to prove to others that they are not worse than "long" ones. As Napoleon said to his adjutant, "you are not taller, but longer, and I can easily equal you in height, having shortened you by the head."
Here is more or less reliable information about the growth of famous people.
Tamerlane - 145 cm. Genghis Khan - 145 cm. Alexander the Great - 150 cm. Charlemagne - 150 cm. Nestor Makhno - 151 cm. Dmitry Medvedev - 162 cm. Joseph Stalin - 163 cm. Vladimir Lenin -164 cm. Nikita Khrushchev - 166 see Alexander Pushkin - 166 (or 161?) see Winston Churchill - 166 cm. Nicholas II -168 cm. Napoleon I - 169 cm. Vladimir Putin - 170 cm. Konstantin Tszyu - 170 cm. Adolf Hitler - 175 cm. Leonid Brezhnev - 176 cm. Ivan the Terrible - 178 cm. Alexander I - 178 cm. Alexander III - 179 cm. Alexander II - 185 cm. Boris Yeltsin - 187 cm. Arnold Schwarzenegger - 187 cm. Jacques Chirac - 189 cm. Bill Clinton - 189 cm. Alexander Marshal - 193 cm. Charles de Gaulle - 196 cm. Philip Kirkorov -198 cm. Vitali Klitschko 201 cm.
Famous women, too, were not all basketball height: Queen Victoria - 152 cm. Catherine II - 157 cm. Elizaveta Petrovna - 180 cm. Tennis player Maria Sharapova - 188 cm.
Translated from the Sami, Kuiva means "old man".
Kuiva is the most famous attraction of Lake Seydozero. The figure is human-shaped and 74 meters high. Its bas-relief protrudes from the wall by 3-4 meters in some places, and this is very clearly visible, especially in winter.
The fact that Kuiva is of natural origin has been known for a long time. In 1923, Academician A.E. Fersman examined the image of Kuiva, and in his book "Memories of a Stone" he wrote about this: "As we saw during our expedition, a dark figure is formed by a combination of lichens, mosses and wet streaks on the rocks."
The Sami, finding themselves near these places, try to be quiet and not think badly of Kuiva.
There are several legends dedicated to this rock figure. Some are more ancient, others arose relatively recently.
According to one of the legends, Kuiva is a figure of the Chud military leader frozen in stone.
Researcher of Hyperborea Gusev I.V. compares the two legends of different peoples:
The Sami of the Kola Peninsula have a legend about how the giant hunter Kuiva came to the Sami lands in ancient times. For a long time he brought fear and horror to the local population. And the people got tired, and prayed to the gods, asking for help. The gods heard the prayers of people and incinerated the giant Kuiva with lightning from the waters of the sacred Seydozero. And since then there has been a trace of the incinerated Kuiva on a sheer cliff on the banks of the Seydozero.
Ancient Greek mythology mentions the legend of the giant hunter Orion, how Orion went to Hyperborea for brides. And for having offended the Hyperborean maiden, he was incinerated by the lightning arrows of the goddess Artemis. Isn't the legend of the giant hunter Kuiva very similar to ancient greek legend about the giant hunter Orion? And the ancient drawing of the constellation Orion by the Muslim astronomer Al-Zufi is almost identical to the image of Kuiva. If in two legends the same giant-hunter is mentioned, it turns out that Seydozero in ancient times was the habitat of the goddess Artemis.
In Fersman's book "Memories of a Stone", the author quotes the following story of the Saami Annushka Kobeleva: "It was a long, long time ago, when I was not yet there, there was no Vasily Vasilyevich grazing deer on the Small Lake, there was no old Arkhipov on Mopchegub , it was a long time ago. Strangers found on our land, they said - Shvetits, and we were a lop, like a lop - naked, without weapons, even without shotguns, and not everyone had knives. And we did not want to fight But the Shveta began to take away the bulls and vazhenki, took our fish places, built paddocks and lemmas - there was nowhere to go. And then the old people gathered and began to think how to drive out the Shveta, and he was so strong - big, with firearms. They argued and decided to go all together against him, take our reindeer and sit down on Seiyavr and Umbozero again. And they went to a real war - some with a shotgun, some just with a knife, they all went to the shvet, and the shvet was strong and was not afraid of a burrow. he cunningly lured our lop to Seiyavr and became a crumb there to go. He hits to the right - so there weren't ten of ours, and drops of blood splattered all the mountains, tundra and khibiny; he hits to the left - again there were no ten of ours, and again drops of Lop's blood splattered across the tundra. You know, you yourself showed me, such a red stone in the mountains - this is that very Lop blood, the blood of the old Sami. But our old people got angry when they saw that the shvet began to crumble them, hid in the willow, mustered their strength and all at once surrounded the shvet from all sides, he here, here - he has no way anywhere: neither to go down to Seiyavr, nor to climb out onto the tundra, so he froze on the rock that hangs over the lake. When you are on Seiyavre, you yourself will see the giant Kuiva - this is the shvet that our Sami laid flat on the stone, our old men, when they went to war against him. So he stayed there, damned Kuiva, and our old men again took possession of the bulls and valets, again sat down on fish places and began to hunt ... Only now, red drops of Sami blood remained on the tundra, you cannot collect all of them, our old people shed a lot of them, while Kuiva was mastered ... ""
“And here is a legend recorded by the Russian scientist V. Yu. Vize from the words of Kuzma Danilov, Semyon Galkin and Philip Sorvanov (presumably residents of the Lovozero churchyard):“ The Chud chief Chude-Chueriv came to Lovozero with his squad, they were all unbaptized, and began to rob the Lapps. The Lopari fled from them to one island on Lovozero, where the "Old Woman" stands, to whom they bring gifts when they go hunting. Chud noticed where the Lapps were running, sat on the karbas and set off in pursuit of them. Then one Lapp beat the "korvi-kart" (tambourine, - author's note) and ask the "old woman" to make the weather. Only Chude-Chueriv and his cook survived. They managed to get to Motka-Guba, where the cook began to cook dinner. And the cook was a sorcerer. He cooks, mixes with a spoon in the cauldron and says: "I wish I could beat the Lop heads like that." At this time, the Lapps approached and, seeing the Chud chief, wounded his self-shot in the leg. He was wounded in the leg in order to take him alive. When the cook saw this, he took the treasury and, so that the Lapps would not get it, threw it into the water, then he himself threw himself into the lake and, like a pike, swam across Seydyavryok to Seydozero. "
Many Eastern myths tell of incredible power, this involuntarily leads to some associations:
After the Americans were dropped atomic bomb in 1945 on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the surviving eyewitnesses of these terrible events in the history of mankind told that from some people after the explosion, only a black shadow remained on the ruins of houses.
So, some nuclear physicists believe that, theoretically, such a trace as the image of Kuiva on a rock near Seydozero could have remained from one of them.
The shadow of a man on the stone steps, left by the strongest heat rays. To the left, on the ruins in the city. To the right, the same steps, in the museum.
In the photos you can see the steps of the main entrance to the Sumitomo Bank, which is located just 250 meters from the epicenter. Probably the man was sitting on the steps, facing the epicenter, possibly waiting for the bank to open. A flash of light, a temperature of 1,000 or even 2,000 degrees, and the person was burned alive, leaving only a shadow. Ten years after the explosion, the shadow practically disappeared from the steps, but when it rained, it slowly appeared. When the bank was rebuilt, the steps were moved to Hiroshima Memorial Museum Peace.
The rock carvings of Kuivu on Saydozero.
