Emily Chan
The state of California contains ancient forests where monumental guardians of time and history stand.
Towering above their surroundings, the giant sequoias beckon visitors to tilt their heads up and strain their necks in an attempt to see where their branches meet the sky.
Among them, one specimen reigns supreme, holding the title of the largest living tree on Earth. Behold General Sherman, the biggest tree the world has ever seen.
The General Sherman tree is located in California’s Sequoia National Park, and it contains more volume than any other tree in existence.
It reaches 275 feet in height, which is equivalent to the length of three blue whales put together. It weighs over 2,000 tons, and its base measures 36 feet in diameter.
Shockingly, the arboreal behemoth is not done growing! Every year, it produces enough wood to make another 60-foot-tall tree.
Additionally, the estimated age of General Sherman is around 2,200-years-old. That means the tremendous tree started growing during the early years of the Roman Empire.
It’s definitely the type of tree that attracts a crowd. California is the one place left where you can see these trees in the wild.
During the ice age, these trees could be found across North America and Europe. But as the glaciers melted, the sequoias disappeared along with them.
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