Egyptian Pharaoh was the first to suffer from a giant disease

The mummy is said to belong to Sa-Nakht, the ancient Egyptian pharaoh, possibly the oldest "giant".

The skeleton of men found in 1901 in a tomb near Egypt's Beit Khallaf, with a height of 1,987 meters, possibly belonging to Sa-Nakht and pharaohs in the Third Dynasty around 2700 BC, according to Michael Habicht, an Egyptian from the Institute of Evolutionary Medicine at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. Previous studies have shown that the average height of men in this period was only about 1.7 meters, Live Science reported.

Picture 1 of Egyptian Pharaoh was the first to suffer from a giant disease
The skull of the pharaoh Sa-Nakht remains.

The kings of ancient Egypt were more likely to have a more adequate diet and better health than ordinary people, so their body size was also large. The nearly two-meter skeleton of the analysis of scientists is much larger than that of Ramsses II, the highest Egyptian pharaoh recorded, who lived after Sa-Nakht for more than 1,000 years and only 1.75 meters tall.

In the study published in August in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, Habicht re-analyzed the skull and skeleton of Sa-Nakht. Long bones provide evidence of superior growth, a clear sign of gigantism. The discovery indicates that the Egyptian pharaoh is the oldest case of this disease in the world. No other member of the Egyptian royal family has such a tall body.

"The study of the evolution of the disease is very important for today's medicine," Habicht said.