* The WORLD'S TALLEST MAN was Robert Wadlow who was 8'11' tall (2.72 metres), weighed 440lbs (200kgs) & wore a size 37AA shoe.

* The tallest man in documented medical history was Robert Pershing Wadlow. Shortly before his death in 1940 in St. Louis, Missouri, at the age of 22, Wadlow was measured at 8', 11.1" tall. His height was attributed to a medical condition known as gigantism, in which a tumor of the pituitary gland produces too much growth hormone.

* The tallest mountain in the world from base to summit is located on the island of Hawaii. The dormant volcano Mauna Kea measures over 30,000' tall when measured from its ocean base to summit, several hundred feet higher than Mt. Everest in the Himalayas.

* The Great Pyramid at Giza in Egypt, constructed around 2500 B.C., was the tallest building in the world until the Eiffel Tower was erected in 1889.

* The tallest & most active volcano in Europe is Mount Etna in Italy. The name 'Etna' comes from the Greek aitho, meaning 'I burn.'

* Robert Waldrow, 1918-1940, was thought to be the world's tallest man at 8'11'+.

* Bamboo (the tallest grass in the world) can grow up to 90 cm in a day.