How big it really is
470,634 km²True area · 181,713 square miles
54 / 242By area
1.66×As Mercator draws it
65 timesFits into Africa
5,942,089People
12.6People per km²
How Mercator draws it
The middle of Turkmenistan is at about 39° N. Mercator stretches each place by the same amount across and up, more the further it is from the equator, so here every area comes out 1.66× its true size.
At the equator nothing is stretched. At 60° north or south, everything is drawn at four times its true area. The poles never fit on the map at all.
Countries about this size
The countries just bigger and just smaller, each at its true area: