
Legends of almost all nations of the world tell of the existence of ancient races of giants in the past. The Armenians also have evidence of this kind. For many years, scientists and independent researchers are increasingly finding the skeletal remains of giant-sized people in the mountains of the Caucasus.
In August 2008, news that bones of 3-meter-tall human giants were found in the Borjomi gorge of Georgia swept the world and became a scientific sensation. This was announced, and then the findings were demonstrated by the academician of the Academy of Sciences of Georgia, Abesalom Vekua. Similar exhibits were also found in neighboring Azerbaijan.
A female skeleton 2 meters 20 cm tall, 4 thousand years old, is exhibited in the museum of the city of Ganja. Nearby is the dishware found in the burial. It was found in an area where the highlands border the plains. Perhaps the remains of giants should be sought specifically in mountainous areas?
Today, residents of many villages in Armenia are convinced that in the distant past there were entire cities of giants on this territory.
You can enter almost any village, ask the first person you meet about who and when found nearby bones of giants, and they will give you the names of people and tell you when it happened. Moreover, it is obvious that the local residents themselves take this absolutely seriously and do not doubt that there were many such finds.
This is confirmed by numerous burials found in Gyumri, Lchashen, Hote, Tandzatap, Yegvard, Goshavan, Oganavan, and other settlements.
Not far from the village of Agarak, there are massive megaliths. Experts believe that they may be of natural origin. But some of them have three clearly hewn sides, they are up to 12 meters high and weigh more than 600 tons. Local legends say that there used to be a large city here where giants lived. Can the myths about giants, which exist among many peoples of the world, turn out to be real historical information?
Here’s what the founder of Armenian historiography, Movses Khorenatsi (Մովսէս Խորենացի), wrote at the very beginning of his famous book “History of Armenia” (5th century):
“The first Gods were fearsome and majestic,
Sources of the greatest blessings in the world:
The beginning of the earth and the settlement of its people.
From them came the generation of giants,
Absurd and immense-bodied giants.
One of them was Hayk – a famous and brave leader,
A sharp shooter from a powerful bow.”
The Armenians consider their ancestor to be the founder of the legendary dynasty Haykazuni – Hayk (Հայկ), who was of giant size and defeated the Babylonian king Bel.
“Hayk was famous among the giants for his bravery and opposed all those who strove for sole power over all the giants and the god-born heroes. He proudly rose against the tyranny of Bel.”
According to legends, while being one of the main Babylonian leaders, Hayk participated in the construction of the Tower of Babel at the suggestion of the main Chaldean ruler Bel, whom Christians identify with Nimrod. But sensing that Bel aspires to sole domination, Hayk returned to his lands north of Babylon with his sons, built a village there and named it after himself, Haykashen. The tomb of patriarch Hayk still exists. It is located in Haykashen, which he founded in Western Armenia. Today Kurds live there, they guard this place and even paved a road to it. Khorenatsi tells that the confrontation between Hayk and Bel ended with the battle of the titans, called Dyutsaznamart, which took place southeast of Lake Van, in the middle course of the Ayotsdzor river.
“Bel Titanid rallies against Hayk and wages war on him, gathering immortal heroes and giant fighters towering up to the sky…
When the giants of both sides met, a terrible roar from their fierce clash echoed the earth.” Mighty Hayk manages in the heat of the battle to break through to the enemy king and strike him down with a single shot from his powerful bow. “Seeing such an incredible feat of courage, his hordes scatter as far as the eye can see… But our country, named after our ancestor, is called Hayk.”
This epic story means, among other things, that according to ancient Armenian traditions our ancestors, that is, Hayk Naapet and his tribe were giants.
There are quite a few independent researchers in the world who claim that people used to be much larger, but over many thousands of years and as a result of various evolutionary processes, their sizes have decreased. But not everyone agrees with this, some people continue to adhere to the long-outdated ideological dogmas of the 20th century out of inertia. In Soviet times, Darwinism was one of the foundations of communist ideology, so anything that contradicted it was not recognized as a scientific fact. And the information of ancient peoples was considered just myths and legends, that is, fabrications.
Scientists who tried to go against generally accepted dogmas could lose their jobs and titles. Today, Armenian scientists are increasingly talking about their unusual findings. If in the 20th century, legends about giants were considered fairy tales, now the situation has changed. Scientists and independent researchers in different countries are looking for additional information about giants.
Khorenatsi accurately points out where Hayk’s sons built cities. It is in these places that the ruins of ancient cyclopean structures are found. The megalithic masonry in them is composed of stones weighing several tons. In different regions of Armenia, not only are there preserved legends that giants once lived here, but there are also many living eyewitnesses who themselves have seen human skulls and bones of unusual sizes. They were often found during construction work.
Similar finds were made in Lchashen, after an ancient settlement was found in 1956 after the Lake Sevan dried up.
Today, where the Sevan coast used to be, there is the central street of the village of Lchashen. Members of the archaeological expedition of the 60s stayed in the house of Garush Manukyan – one of the most respected people in the village. Gegham, the son of Garush Manukyan, remembers what the archaeologists found and keeps photos from those years. “The bones and skulls of the skeletons were of large size. They were specifically applied to the body to compare with a person. It turned out that the bones of the giants were 20-30 cm longer. Apparently, at that time people were giants,” recalls Gegham Manukyan.
Movses Khorenatsi also wrote that one of the places of settlement of the giant descendants of Hayk Naapet was in Syunik. The Syunik region is located in the southeast of Armenia. Here in the gorge of the Vorotan river there are megalithic remains of ancient settlements. Part of them are visible, but even more are hidden under the ground. In the mountain village of Khot in 1968, while erecting a monument to the heroes of the Great Patriotic War, workers, leveling the top of the mound, discovered an ancient tomb with the remains of two giants. The witnesses are still alive.
It is currently impossible to make a final conclusion as to how tall this ancient type of people was. Different figures are named in different regions: in most cases 3-4 meters, but sometimes even more, as for example in Ukhtasar, Yegvard and Goshavank. Moreover, the finds are often not single, but group ones and even entire settlements. And it is quite possible that among the ancestors of mankind there were entire nations of giants, about which our history knows almost nothing. Today, these issues remain an unresolved mystery for us. However, the ancient legends of Armenia unequivocally testify that Armenians descended from giants – from the mighty and great Hayk Naapet and his glorious kind.
by Armen Petrosyan
Translated by Vigen Avetisyan