How big is a square kilometer?

I know, it’s the question uppermost on your mind: when you see that Almaty Province in Kazakhstan 224,000 square kilometers, you immediately wonder – exactly how big is a square kilometer?

Well, I’m here to answer your question.

The area highlighted in green below represents one square kilometer (a park in Dallas, TX).

And, just so you get a sense of scale, here it is zoomed:

I know. More data, right? Okay, I zoomed the Square Kilometer patch in Google Maps, then found a comparable segment in the residential area directly above it. Here’s what it looks like:

What does this have to do with anything? Well, it gives you a sense of scale. Some areas in the unreached world are big – for example, Qyzylorda province in Kazakhstan has 226,000 of these square kilometers – and just a little over half a million people. Qyzylord, 226,000 sq km; South Korea, 100,000 sq km; Italy, 300,000 sq km. So Qyzylorda is twice the size of South Korea (pop. 50 million) and 2/3rd the size of Italy (pop. 60 million) – yet with just half a million in population. Which makes it look like:

Extremely remote. Difficult to reach.

Now you know what a square kilometer looks like…!