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Thousands of years ago, groves of giant sequoias grew in Crimea and the Caucasus. But the last Ice Age wiped them out, leaving only a few survivors in California’s mountains.
When one of California’s sequoias was cut down, researchers counted 3,500 annual rings on its stump. That means the tree lived about 3,500 years and reached roughly 150 meters (492 feet) tall.
In the hollow of another sequoia, people created a lecture hall with a piano, a lectern, and 32 chairs. Fifty tourists can enter the hollow without feeling cramped. In the trunk of a sequoia toppled by a storm, they even set up a garage large enough for tractors.
