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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
World
Io Dodds

This California forest has a tree that’s nearly 5,000 years old. But its location is a closely guarded secret

One of Inyo National Forest's many bristlecone pine trees, photographed in 2007 - (AFP/Getty)

High in the arid mountain forests of eastern California there is a living tree that's older than the pyramids of Giza and the ancient city-state of Babylon — but its location is a secret.

The Methuselah tree, named after an especially long-living character in the Book of Genesis, is estimated to have started growing roughly 4,857 years ago in the White Mountains just north of Death Valley.

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