Who had the largest empire in terms of contiguous area

Factual Questions
1

Since written history who had the largest empire in terms of contiguous area? The contiguous aspect should rule out the British monarchs i presume.

2

Mongols at about 1259 seen here, before the unitary state broke down ( so for example the rest of China was eventually conquered, but by then the Mongol empire as a single state was merely a polite fiction ). Those handy fellows at wikipedia claim 9.27 million sq. miles, which sounds a little overly precise. Since borders were always shifting a bit at that point and actual control vs. suzerainty can add a little confusion, probably 9 million+ would be a safer figure.

3

It’s difficult to imagine this is not the Mongol Empire at it’s height. That was reportedly 24,000,000 square km at its height.

4

I realize the OP specified contiguous area but how large was the British Empire at its height?

5

Nobody ever claimed the Moon, right? That’d be a lot of territory.

6

The Galactic Empire.

7

Wikipedia has a list of everything, including “largest empires.” British empire = 35.5 million square kilometers, vs Mongol Empire at 24.0 million sq. km.

8

A close second would be the Soviet Bloc, i.e., the Warsaw Pact countries (Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the Soviet Union). It had a total area of about 9,032,000 square miles or 23,393,000 km². If you add Mongolia, which wasn’t a full member of the Warsaw Pact, you get about 9,636,000 square miles or 24,958,000 km².

(And, of course, the Soviet-controlled territory overlaps considerably with the territory of the Mongol Empire.)