Zeng Jinlian: The Tallest Woman Ever Recorded
Guinness World Records/XZeng Jinlian stood 8 feet, 1 inch tall by the time she died in 1982.
The next entry on our list of the tallest people ever is Zeng Jinlian, from China, who stood 8 feet, 1 inch tall. That makes her the tallest woman ever recorded. But sadly, she never actually made it to womanhood.
Born in Yujiang village in China’s Hunan Province, Jinlian exhibited abnormal growth from a young age. Guinness World Records reports that she started growing at an unusual speed when she was four months old. By the time she was four years old, she was already over 5 feet tall, and Jinlian reached an incredible height of 7 feet by the time she was 13 years old.
But like many of the other tallest people ever, Jinlian suffered from numerous health problems during her tragically short life. In addition to her gigantism, Jinlian also had scoliosis and diabetes. And in 1982, at the age of just 17 years old, she passed away due to diabetic complications.
Though Guinness World Records named Zeng Jinlian the tallest woman ever, she’s actually the tallest woman ever recorded. There may have been taller women in the past, including Dutchwoman Trijntje Keever.
Born in 1616 in the Netherlands, Trijntje Keever allegedly grew as tall as 8 feet, 6 inches. Keever’s parents supposedly charged people money to gawk at their daughter. Sadly, like many of the tallest people in the world, Keever reportedly died young at the age of 17 (just like Jinlian).
Public DomainTrijntje Keever lived in the 17th century, which makes her alleged height difficult to verify.
Though she was purportedly taller than Jinlian, Keever’s height is unverified — as is the reason for her height. According to the Hektoen International: A Journal of Medical Humanities, the location of her body has been lost to time, which makes it hard to determine if she had an underlying condition.
