The National Geographic Society has not discovered
ancient giant humans, despite rampant reports and pictures.
The hoax began with a doctored photo and later found a
receptive online audience—thanks perhaps to the image's unintended religious
connotations.
By 2004 the "discovery" was being blogged and
emailed all over the world—"Giant Skeleton Unearthed!"—and it's been
enjoying a revival in 2007.
The photo fakery might be obvious to most people. But the
tall tale refuses to lie down even five years later, if a continuing flow of
emails to National Geographic News are any indication. (The National Geographic
Society owns National Geographic News.)
The messages come from around the globe—Portugal, India,
El Salvador, Malaysia, Africa, the Dominican Republic, Greece, Egypt, South
Africa, Kenya. But they all ask the same question: Is it true?
Perpetuating the Myth
Helping to fuel the story's recent resurgence are a
smattering of media outlets that have reported the find as fact.
An often cited March 2007 article in India's Hindu Voice
monthly, for example, claimed that a National Geographic Society team, in
collaboration with the Indian Army, had dug up a giant human skeleton in India.
"Recent exploration activity in the northern region
of India uncovered a skeletal remains of a human of phenomenal size," the
report read.
The story went on to say the discovery was made by a
"National Geographic Team (India Division) with support from the Indian
Army since the area comes under jurisdiction of the Army."
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