# Who had the largest empire in terms of contiguous area **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 26, 2016, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-had-the-largest-empire-in-terms-of-contiguous-area/775662 "2016-12-26T19:43:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Nansbread1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Nansbread1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nansbread1)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2016, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-had-the-largest-empire-in-terms-of-contiguous-area/775662/1 "2016-12-26T19:43:02Z")
Since written history who had the largest empire in terms of contiguous area? The contiguous aspect should rule out the British monarchs i presume. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2016, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-had-the-largest-empire-in-terms-of-contiguous-area/775662/2 "2016-12-26T19:50:04Z")
> [@Nansbread1](#): > > Since written history who had the largest empire in terms of contiguous area? The contiguous aspect should rule out the British monarchs i presume. Mongols at about 1259 [seen here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MongolEmpire.jpg), 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. ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2016, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-had-the-largest-empire-in-terms-of-contiguous-area/775662/3 "2016-12-26T19:52:02Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2016, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-had-the-largest-empire-in-terms-of-contiguous-area/775662/4 "2016-12-26T20:50:32Z")
I realize the OP specified contiguous area but how large was the British Empire at its height? ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2016, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-had-the-largest-empire-in-terms-of-contiguous-area/775662/5 "2016-12-26T20:54:46Z")
Nobody ever claimed the Moon, right? That’d be a lot of territory. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2016, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-had-the-largest-empire-in-terms-of-contiguous-area/775662/6 "2016-12-26T21:03:34Z")
The Galactic Empire. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2016, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-had-the-largest-empire-in-terms-of-contiguous-area/775662/7 "2016-12-26T21:05:43Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I realize the OP specified contiguous area but how large was the British Empire at its height? [Wikipedia has a list of everything, including “largest empires.”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_empires) British empire = 35.5 million square kilometers, vs Mongol Empire at 24.0 million sq. km. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2016, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-had-the-largest-empire-in-terms-of-contiguous-area/775662/8 "2016-12-26T21:06:14Z")
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.)