Case file · Cryptid

Giants of Bashan (Og)

Biblical Rephaim and King Og, giants of the land east of the Jordan.

1,400 BCE · 32.60, 36.10 · status: legend

The researched reading

A biblical tradition of giants, probably inspired by ancient megaliths and heroic myth. No physical evidence supports real giants.

Explanation	Weight	Why
A cultural story	70%	The Rephaim and Og appear in the Hebrew Bible and Ugaritic texts as ancient heroes or ancestral shades; giant stories are common motifs.
Something known, misidentified	15%	Megalithic dolmens and large basalt tombs in Bashan were interpreted as works of giants; Og’s “iron bed” may be a basalt sarcophagus.
A hoax or fabrication	6%	Modern claims of giant skeletons are fabrications.
Perception, memory or mind	4%	Awe at large monuments.
Genuinely anomalous	3%	No evidence.
An unknown or out-of-place animal	2%	No skeletal evidence of giant humans.

Official position: No official investigation; scholars treat it as mythology.