Compare the Size of Mountains, Deserts, Islands and Lakes

TrueSize is not only for countries. You can load natural features such as the Sahara, the Alps, Borneo or the Caspian Sea and drag them over any country to see how they compare. The catalog holds 787 land features, plus lakes, seas, bays, rivers and river basins, and they all move and keep their true area like any other region.

The Sahara and the 48 contiguous US states side by side at the same latitude.

Open this map in TrueSize

How to compare a natural feature

1. Open the map at truesize.net.
2. On the Home tab, click the search box ("Search for a country or region…").
3. Type the name of a mountain range, desert, island, peninsula, lake, sea or river. Results show a small icon for the kind of feature.
4. Pick a result. The feature appears on the map.
5. Load a country next to it and drag the feature over the country. Both keep their true area.

Rivers and river basins load as well, but a river is a long thin line, so its area says little. Basins are often the more useful comparison.

What is in the catalog

Kind	How many
Islands	249
Mountains and mountain ranges	219
Plateaus	101
Archipelagos	84
Peninsulas	67
Deserts	58
Basins	9

That is 787 land features. Lakes, seas, bays, rivers and river basins are in addition to that.

Load a whole group at once

Don't want to search one by one? Open the Advanced tab, press Load, and use the Load All dialog. These options are for natural features:

• Load All Lakes, Seas, and Bays (rivers excluded)
• Load All Rivers
• Load All Mountains and Plateaus
• Load All Deserts
• Load All Islands and Archipelagos
• Load All Peninsulas

Each group then appears on the map at once; drag any shape out of the pile. Some groups hold hundreds of shapes, so give the map a moment to load them. These options are for modern maps; the dialog says "Not available in historical years" when you are in Historical mode.

All lakes, seas and bays loaded together.

All islands and archipelagos loaded together.

All mountains and plateaus loaded together.

Tips

• Open Tools and press Stats to see the total area of everything you have loaded.
• Use Select to pick several features and move them as a group.
• A mountain range is drawn as an area, not as a ridge line, so its size depends on how the range is outlined.
• Lakes can change over time. For a shrinking lake such as the Aral Sea, check the timeline in Historical Borders Map by Year.

Examples to try

• Is the Sahara bigger than the USA?
• The Great Lakes vs countries

Where it works

Search and Load All for natural features work on the web and in the mobile app.

Related

• Search and add countries, regions and more
• Move and compare countries at true size
• Compare the EU, NATO, BRICS and other alliances
• Divide and merge regions

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Next: Compare the EU, NATO, BRICS and other alliances