Lessons from History

Lessons from History is a platform for writers who share ideas and inspirational stories from world history. The objective is to promote history on Medium and demonstrate the value of historical writing.

Member-only story

4 Times When the World Was Fooled With a ‘New Discovery’

4 min readMar 1, 2025

--

Lucas Cranach the Elder, the Fountain of Youth, 1546, Gemaldegalerie, Berlin. Image source: Wikimedia Commons

To read this story for free, please click here.

History is filled with discoveries that have always helped us better understand the modern-day world we know today. However, not all the findings were valid; some so-called ‘discoveries’ started with a grain of truth, only to be stretched, twisted, and inflated with every retelling.

The thirst for fame and the pressure to uncover something groundbreaking made a few explorers tweak their stories just a little. Let’s have a look at four of history’s most exaggerated discoveries.

1. The South American ‘Giants’

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

Ferdinand Magellan, the legendary navigator known for circumnavigating the globe, reportedly encountered something extraordinary in present-day Argentina: a tribe of giants.

Though exceptionally tall people have been mentioned throughout history, Magellan’s crew described these creatures as tall as three meters (ten feet). Not just them, but even other famed explorers like Sir Francis Drake and Commodore Byron have also claimed to have come…

--

--

Lessons from History
Lessons from History

Published in Lessons from History

Lessons from History is a platform for writers who share ideas and inspirational stories from world history. The objective is to promote history on Medium and demonstrate the value of historical writing.

Fareeha Arshad
Fareeha Arshad

Written by Fareeha Arshad

Avid reader. Ardent dreamer. Amateur writer.

Responses (1)