Ellen Lloyd - AncientPages.com - While many still dispute the existence of ancient giants, some archaeologists are convinced people of superhuman size built several cities in the distant past.
Giants are frequently mentioned in myths, legends, and sacred texts, but most modern scholars are reluctant to embrace the idea people much taller than the average man roamed the Earth thousands of years ago. It’s puzzling to see this negative attitude persists especially considering that we do know giants are real- No-one questions the existence of Robert Pershing Wadlow. Known as the Giant of Illinois, Wadlow was the world’s tallest man. There are photos of him, and many can testify they knew him personally.
So why does the subject of ancient giants suddenly become such controversial, evoking emotions of anger? Isn’t it obvious to assume giants existed in the past and they can still be encountered today?
Giants Mentioned In The Bible
In the Bible, we find several references to ancient giants. For example, Joshua, who became the leader of the Israelite tribes after the death of Moses mentions the Gibborim in his chronicles. The “Gibborim”, “heroes of old, men of renown,” who are mentioned in Genesis 6, were not as tall and powerful as the Nephilim, but they were nevertheless a dangerous warrior race. It is said that ancient Jericho was the city of giants and home to the mighty Gibborim.
“There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.” (Genesis 6:4)
There are also several Biblical stories dealing with the Rephaim, another group of giants described as "a mighty people with tall stature who lived in Canaan." Another mysterious race mentioned in the Bible is the little-known Didanum people, sometimes also called the Ditanu or Tidanu. The Didanum people were the ancestors of the Nephilim and Rephaim.
From the Book of Deuteronomy, the fifth book of the Christian Old Testament, where it is also known as the Fifth Book of Moses, we learn that giant King Og of Bashan ruled over 60 cities built by the huge Rephaim.
Bashan is frequently mentioned in the Bible. It is the northernmost region of the Transjordan, located in what is today known as Syria. Archaeologists who have examined the ruins found in this region can say with certainty these cities were not constructed by people similar to modern man.
Ancient Cities Of Bashan Were Built By Giants
In his book, The Ancient Bashan and the Cities of Og, Cyril Graham writes that “the streets are perfect, the walls perfect and what seems more astonishing, the stone doors are still hanging on their hinges…
Some of these gates are large enough to admit of a camel passing through them, and the doors are of proportionate dimensions, some of the stones of which they are formed being eighteen inches in thickness. The roofs also are formed of huge stone slabs resting on the massive walls.
All betoken the workmanship of a race endowed with powers far exceeding those of ordinary men; and [all] give credibility to the supposition that we have in their dwellings of the giant race that occupied that district before it was invaded by the Israelites."
Graham points out that the houses in the cities of Bashan were “built of such huge and massive stones that no force which can be brought against them in that country could ever batter them down.”
Many ancient cities were built by Biblical giants. Credit: Public Domain
Rev. J. L. Porter who also visited the ancient, ruined cities of Bashan, agrees with Graham and thinks the mighty Rephaim built these cities. In his book, The Giant Cities of Bashan; and Syria's Holy Places, Porter writes: “Moses makes special mention of the strong cities of Bashan, and speaks of their high walls and gates. He tells, us, too in the same connection, that Bashan was called the land of the Giants (or Rephaim, Deut. Iii 13), leaving us to conclude that the cities were built by giants.
Now the houses of Kieroth and the other towns in Bashan appear to be just such dwellings as a race of giants would build.
The walls, the roofs, but especially the ponderous gates, doors, and bars, are in a way characteristic of a period when architecture was in its infancy, when giants were mason and when the strength and security were the grand requisites.”
During his visit to Kieroth in Israel, Rev. Porter measured one of these ancient doors. It was “nine feet high, four and a half feet wide, and ten inches thick.”
The archaeological evidence that can be found in Bashan certainly speaks in favor of the ancient giants who seem to have been erased from the pages of history.
Updated on June 22, 2021
Written by Ellen Lloyd – AncientPages.com
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Expand for referencesMr. Demmon - The Lost Book of King Og: The Only Written Words of the Rephaim
Cyril Graham - The Ancient Bashan and the Cities of Og
Josias Leslie Porter - The Giant Cities of Bashan and Syria's Holy Places
