The 20 Tallest People in History

Robert Wadlow, a native of the United States, was the tallest person ever recorded, standing 2.72 meters tall at the time of his death in 1940. Born in Alton, Illinois, in 1918, he was a perfectly normal baby who simply never stopped growing, due to a pituitary gland tumor that doctors advised his family against attempting to remove surgically. When asked during a radio interview if he was annoyed when people stared at him, he calmly replied that he didn’t pay any attention to them—a response that reflected his calm and good-natured character, which made him endearing to everyone he met.

John William Rogan, born in Hendersonville, Tennessee, was recorded as the tallest immobile person ever documented and the second-tallest person in history, at 2.67 m, behind Robert Wadlow. His rapid growth began at age 13 and led to ankylosis, a severe stiffening of the joints that eventually left him unable to stand or walk; he got around using a cart pulled by a goat. He continued to grow until his death, and his exact height was not measured until after his death in 1905.

John Carroll was born in Buffalo, New York, and stood nearly 2.65 meters tall as an adult, earning him the nickname “the Buffalo Giant” in the media and medical literature. His height was complicated by two competing conditions: acromegalic gigantism, which caused continuous growth, and kyphoscoliosis, an abnormal curvature of the spine, which caused him to lose a few centimeters that he would otherwise have measured. Despite these significant challenges, Carroll tried to lead a normal life and even ran unsuccessfully for office before dying in 1969 at the age of 37.

Trijntje Cornelisdochter Keever, born in Edam, the Netherlands, in 1616, is believed to have been the tallest woman in history, measuring approximately 2.54 meters at the time of her death at age 17. She was already 2 meters tall at the age of nine, which made her a sensation throughout Europe. Her parents took her to carnivals where even members of foreign royalty came to see her. Her original shoes, measuring 36 cm in length and equivalent to a European size 54, are preserved and on display at the Edam Museum, providing one of the most tangible pieces of evidence of her extraordinary stature.

After Robert Wadlow’s death in 1940, the record for the world’s tallest living person passed to the Finnish giant Väinö Myllyrinne, who had lived in Wadlow’s shadow for nearly a decade. What makes Myllyrinne particularly unusual on this list is that he experienced not one, but two distinct growth spurts: he reached 2.24 m in his early twenties, then experienced a second growth spurt in his thirties, which ultimately brought him to 2.47 m. Myllyrinne served in the Finnish Armed Forces and is widely recognized as the world’s tallest soldier, with a wingspan of 40 cm—the largest ever recorded.

Édouard Beaupré was born on January 9, 1881, in Willow Bunch, a town in southern Saskatchewan. He was the eldest of the 20 children of Gaspard Beaupré and Florestine Piché, a Métis woman. Nicknamed the “Giant of Willow Bunch,” he toured as a strongman and circus performer, astonishing audiences by bending iron bars and lifting horses onto his shoulders, but his health was gradually undermined by tuberculosis. He died at the age of 23 from a pulmonary hemorrhage while performing at the St. Louis World’s Fair. After a long and tumultuous saga during which his mummy was put on public display, his ashes were finally returned to Willow Bunch for a dignified burial in 1990.

Sultan Kösen took the title of the world’s tallest man from Bao Xishun, a native of China, in 2009, and has held it for more than 16 years. Born in Turkey in 1982, his exceptional growth did not begin until he was 10 years old, when a tumor on his pituitary gland triggered gigantism and acromegaly. He continued to grow until gamma knife surgery in 2010 finally halted the process. In addition to his imposing height, Kösen holds the record for the largest hands of any living person, with hands measuring 28.5 cm from the wrist to the tip of the middle finger.

Leonid Stadnyk was a Ukrainian man whose rapid growth began after brain surgery he underwent at the age of 13, which triggered a tumor that released abnormal amounts of growth hormone. He trained and worked as a veterinary surgeon for a time, but eventually had to give it up because of his height and went on to make a living as a farmer. Guinness World Records eventually removed him from its official lists because he consistently refused to undergo its strict verification protocol, which requires multiple sessions over several days, meaning that his height remained an informal estimate rather than a certified record.

Bernard A. Coyne lived from July 27, 1897, to May 20, 1921, and at the time of his death, he is said to have reached a height of 2.54 meters, although he was still growing, just like Robert Wadlow. He was one of the few people in medical history to have verifiably reached a height of 2.54 meters, and he held the title of the world’s tallest person at the time of his death. He is buried in Anthon, Iowa, in an extra-large coffin specially designed for him.

Don Koehler was born on September 1, 1925, and died on February 26, 1981. Suffering from gigantism, he once stood 2.49 meters tall, but later in life, a condition called kyphosis caused his spine to curve significantly. He grew up in northern Chicago and is considered one of the most prominent tall people of his time, having raised public awareness of pituitary disorders throughout his life. He held the title of the world’s tallest living person from 1969 to 1981, making him one of the longest-reigning holders of that distinction in the 20th century.

Zeng Jinlian, a native of Yujiang Village in China’s Hunan Province, is the tallest woman in modern history. According to Guinness World Records, she began growing at an unusual rate as early as four months old. By the age of four, she was already over 1.50 meters tall, and she reached 2.10 meters by the age of 13, which was accompanied by serious complications, including scoliosis and diabetes. She died in 1982 at the age of just 18 and remains the only woman in verified modern records to have exceeded 2.40 meters.

Patrick Cotter O’Brien was born in Kinsale, County Cork, Ireland, in 1760, and became the first person in history whose height of over 2.40 meters was verified and documented. He adopted the stage name O’Brien to suggest a connection to Irish royalty, toured England extensively as the Bristol Giant, and earned enough money to enjoy a comfortable retirement before his death in 1806. Since no hearse could accommodate his 2.54-meter-long coffin, his remains were carried to the grave by 14 men who took turns.

What sets Angus MacAskill apart from almost everyone else on this list is that his extraordinary height was not due to gigantism or any other medical condition; he was simply, by all accounts, a naturally enormous human being. Guinness World Records officially recognized MacAskill as the tallest non-pathological giant in history, standing 2.36 meters tall with a perfectly proportioned build. Born in Scotland in 1825 and raised in Nova Scotia after his family emigrated, he stood 2.36 meters tall and weighed 215 kilograms, with shoulders 112 centimeters wide.

Anna Swan was born in 1846 in Nova Scotia, Canada, and grew to a height of 2.31 meters, making her one of the tallest women in history whose measurements are well documented. She went on to have a remarkable career as an artist, eventually joining the Barnum & Bailey Circus, where she met and married Martin Van Buren Bates, another giant from Kentucky who stood over 2.30 meters tall. The couple became famous in the 19th-century entertainment world and settled in Seville, Ohio, where a life-size statue of Anna can still be seen today.

Vikas Uppal was born in India in 1986 and is said to have reached a height of approximately 2.51 meters, although his measurements were never officially verified by Guinness World Records according to their standardized protocol. He grew up in the state of Haryana, India, and was widely portrayed by the Indian media as potentially the tallest person in the world during his lifetime. Uppal died in 2007 at the age of 21 following brain surgery, and his case remains one of the most controversial in discussions about the tallest people in history due to the lack of certified measurements.

Gabriel Estêvão Monjane was born in Mozambique and became the tallest person ever recorded in Africa, standing just over 2.40 meters tall due to gigantism caused by an overproduction of growth hormone. He was recognized by Guinness World Records during his lifetime, making him one of the most officially verified cases on this list outside of North America and Europe. His life was marked by health problems related to his extreme height, and his story remains less well documented than those of his counterparts from wealthier countries, a reminder of how unevenly historical records have been preserved.

Julius Koch was born in Reutlingen, Germany, in 1872, and toured Europe under the stage name “Constantine the Giant,” performing notably at the London Pavilion and the Folies Bergère in Paris. His height was eventually estimated after both of his legs had to be amputated following a series of falls that caused injuries which led to gangrene. His femurs, measuring 76 cm, are the longest bones ever recorded in a human being, surpassing even those of Robert Wadlow, and his skeleton is preserved at the Natural History Museum in Mons, Belgium, where it can still be seen today.

Albert Johan Kramer was a Dutch giant born in 1897 who held the title of the world’s tallest living person for a time in the 1920s and early 1930s, a distinction that is not widely known outside of specialized works on the subject. He stood approximately 2.37 meters tall and, like many others on this list, suffered from a pituitary disorder that caused him to grow far beyond normal height. His record was eventually broken by Robert Wadlow, who continued to grow at an extraordinary rate throughout the 1930s, and Kramer’s story was largely overshadowed by that of his more famous successor.

Suleiman Ali Nashnush was a Libyan man who is said to have reached a height of over 2.40 meters before undergoing surgery in Rome in 1960 that halted his pituitary growth, making his case one of the first documented examples of medical intervention aimed at stopping gigantism. Although he was a basketball player, he also had an unlikely career as an actor in the 1969 Italian film Fellini Satyricon. His story is a relatively rare example of an extremely tall person from the 20th century who benefited from surgical treatment and was thus able to live into adulthood.

Brahim Takioullah is a Moroccan born in 1982 who stands approximately 2.47 meters tall and has been certified by Guinness World Records, making him one of the tallest people in the world alongside Sultan Kösen. He also holds another record: his feet, which measure 38.1 cm, are officially recognized as the largest feet of any living person. Unlike many of the historical figures on this list, Takioullah is still alive today, a reminder that the remarkable history of extremes in human height continues to unfold.