Trijntje Keever / Groote Meidt

With a height of 260cm Trijntje Keever from The Netherlands may well be the tallest woman ever. Although she lived in the 17th century, when records were scarce and giants often exaggerated height for financial gains at the funfair, there is evidence that she was indeed that tall. A life-size painting and her shoes are on display in the town hall of  Edam, the famous cheese producing village where she was born.

What makes her possible status as the tallest woman even more intriging is the curious fact that the shortest woman that ever lived, Pauline Musters, was also from The Netherlands. That makes Holland, with only a modest 16 million inhabitants, the nation with the most hypervariable women in the world and a good testing ground for downsizing the human species.