We are all familiar with the expression «you are older than Methuselah » to express that a person is very old or, rather, has many years. The comparison with Methuselah is due to the fact that he is the oldest person mentioned in the Old Testament (he died at the age of 969 years) and for you to have a reference, he was the grandfather of Noah … that of the Universal Flood.
Well, this was not the "real" Methuselah, the "real" one is still alive, he is almost 5,000 years old and, they say, he is in good health although he looks more dead than alive. He enjoys his retirement at 10,000 feet in the White Mountains in hot California, following an austere diet and away from the madding crowd. Accompanied by other millennials, he went unnoticed until in 1953 the scientist Edmund Schulman he discovered it. To preserve his identity, and to respect his "spiritual" retreat, Edmund kept his exact location secret.
Methuselah is a bristlecone pine
Bristlecone Pine Forest
This variety of pines has been able to adapt to the extreme conditions of the arid mountains of California, keeping only part of them alive. Some, like Methuselah, only one branch.
Image:Squidoo