What is the size of Yemen? (2024)

https://theborys.substack.com/p/what-is-the-size-of-yemen

Comments

walrus01Sep 27, 2026, 6:43 AM
I think a more important question is whether Yemen still exists as as single coherent political entity with the same borders as seen on ANY of those maps, which given the present situation, it clearly does not.

edit: map here https://understandingwar.org/research/middle-east/iran-updat...

and here: https://yemen.liveuamap.com/

throwaway27448Sep 27, 2026, 7:27 AM
[flagged]
walrus01Sep 27, 2026, 8:16 AM
This has to be some kind of bait
badnewSep 27, 2026, 8:17 AM
Idk, supporting literal terrorism is pretty trendy these days
bluealienpieSep 27, 2026, 8:36 AM
Like bombing innocent people in boats for a crime that would require a trial and not be illegible for death sentence?
doublerebelSep 27, 2026, 9:56 AM
Eligible: qualified for

Illegible: unreadable

badnewSep 27, 2026, 8:43 AM
Which innocent people are you talking about exactly?
scheme271Sep 27, 2026, 9:32 AM
I think it's a reference to the US bombing small boats in the caribbean and eastern pacific with claims that they were drug smugglers.
TostinoSep 27, 2026, 9:56 AM
Were they charged and convicted with a crime? Maybe they should have been...but we'll never know now.
badnewSep 27, 2026, 12:47 PM
I think that illegally crossing a country's border, especially as part of a drug cartel's narcotics operations, tends to carry some risk
TostinoSep 27, 2026, 12:57 PM
What specific border are you talking about?
badnewSep 27, 2026, 1:07 PM
Any country
rightnutwingjobSep 27, 2026, 9:49 AM
Drug smugglers.

We’ve devolved from the proverbial slap on the wrist to the practice of a pat on the back and we’ll wishes.

Anything short of that is viewed as a a crime against humanity.

throwaway27448Sep 27, 2026, 9:32 AM
Presumably they're referring to stuff like this: https://www.hrw.org/report/2026/07/21/a-dangerous-partnershi...
rightnutwingjobSep 27, 2026, 9:52 AM
> documents three incidents that saw ordinary people subjected to abuses, including drone strikes, torture, and arbitrary detention. In a fourth case, a fishing boat and most of its crew went missing amid signs of another attack.

That is unfortunate.

Are you going to bother to mention the millions who have been affected by imported drugs?

AngryDataSep 27, 2026, 7:12 PM
Oh no drugs, good thing drug crimes come with a death sentence! Even better when it is an extrajudicial death sentence!
throwaway27448Sep 27, 2026, 10:26 AM
Is there any evidence they are not just blowing up random people?

Edit: i have zero faith that the us government is can, let alone is willing to, control the drug trade. This seems to be an excuse to exercise violent control of the americas as an end unto itself. This is in line with our intervention in venezuela, our bullying cuba, our constant abuse of the phrase "monroe doctrine".

badnewSep 27, 2026, 12:40 PM
You, knowing absolutely nothing about the inner workings of the counter-narcotics operations, assert that there is no evidence that those people are drug runners, based only on ignorance of the facts, yet you are also apparently perfectly content to not provide any evidence to the contrary (that they are indeed systematically killing "random people"), despite the fact that such a claim is completely absurd, and you don't see any contradiction?
D-CoderSep 27, 2026, 3:01 PM
> knowing absolutely nothing about the inner workings of the counter-narcotics operations, assert that there is no evidence that those people are drug runners

Well, he's correct that there is no evidence known to him, so there IS no evidence known to him.

To my knowledge, the administration has not released any evidence, only claims: "We know they are drug smugglers and we have evidence that we will not show you."

badnewSep 27, 2026, 5:36 PM
So there are drug smugglers, but the US isn't targeting them, they're targeting random boats, and the US is doing this for some reason which is apparently clear to OP but hasn't been made clear to us, and that somehow is the simplest explanation for what's going on, despite being entirely absurd?
adaml_623Sep 27, 2026, 9:47 AM
Legal definition reminder:

Innocent until proven guilty.

Relevance:

Legal protection in place to protect innocent people. Like you and your family.

arczyxSep 27, 2026, 9:56 AM
Yeah sadly some people still supports the US and Israel considering how many hospitals they bombed so far.
badnewSep 27, 2026, 12:51 PM
"The protection to which civilian hospitals are entitled shall not cease unless they are used to commit, outside their humanitarian duties, acts harmful to the enemy." - Fourth Geneva Convention, Article 19(1)
throwaway27448Sep 27, 2026, 9:30 AM
Inexplicably, people do tend to vote here. I do, however, condemn the state of the united states of america—the map of the world would certainly be much improved without that name on it.
3848484848Sep 27, 2026, 8:03 AM
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throwaway198846Sep 27, 2026, 8:12 AM
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AmboliaSep 27, 2026, 8:56 AM
The current Minister of Defence of the Houthi government is Sunni.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_al-Atifi

throwaway198846Sep 27, 2026, 10:31 AM
I did consider writing (Shia) instead of Shia but I still think it is mistake from a long term perspective due to previous history between shia and sunni.
throwaway27448Sep 27, 2026, 9:30 AM
Fortunately, I have basic media literacy and such tricks don't work on me.
phsauSep 27, 2026, 9:36 AM
Does that basic literacy include reading their flag? Or is that unrelated?

Would you care to educate us?

throwaway27448Sep 27, 2026, 9:37 AM
[flagged]
rightnutwingjobSep 27, 2026, 9:47 AM
> I have basic media literacy and such tricks don't work on me.

> We are the actual murderers in this situation.

throwaway27448Sep 27, 2026, 9:48 AM
Are you unaware of our involvement in the area? I suggest clicking on the links in my comment. Any decent response would involve deposing both the saudi arabian government and our own, including many high-level state department officials, and charging them with crimes against humanity. Probably a few other dozen states, too.

But international law is a joke these days, so humanity will let the missiles do diplomacy instead.

...

Look, obviously violence is bad. But we have made such a farce of all other ways of negotiating conflict that it's refreshing to see people stand up for themselves without our permission.

rightnutwingjobSep 27, 2026, 9:57 AM
throwaway27448Sep 27, 2026, 10:28 AM
I said that ^

For posterity, in response to "Idk, supporting literal terrorism is pretty trendy these days":

> Inexplicably, people do tend to vote here. I do, however, condemn the state of the united states of america—the map of the world would certainly be much improved without that name on it.

arczyxSep 27, 2026, 9:54 AM
Given what the US and Israel did to them it's not surprising.
throwaway198846Sep 27, 2026, 10:39 AM
Ignoring the curse upon Jews and and victory to Islam, how convenient.

Israel didn't lift a finger to hurt them before they attacked Israel but nice try to confuse cause and effect.

mrexcessSep 27, 2026, 10:48 AM
Swapping “Jews” for “Israel” like that seems a certain way.

Do you think Yemenis deserve to choose who their government is?

throwaway198846Sep 27, 2026, 11:39 AM
> Swapping “Jews” for “Israel” like that seems a certain way.

I didn't swap those, their saying includes both Jews and Israel. What is a certain way, I'm confused.

throwaway27448Sep 27, 2026, 11:50 AM
I'm against killing people until they do bad.

Besides, let's not pretend like Israel isn't a resevoir of hate against arabs and muslims—they are defacto a jewish supremacist state. By any measure that Ansarallah is worth attacking, surely Israel deserves this many times over for acting on their violent bigotry for decades before any of us were born.

throwaway198846Sep 27, 2026, 12:26 PM
This doesn't answer my clarification request from mrexcess.
badnewSep 27, 2026, 8:13 AM
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throwaway27448Sep 27, 2026, 9:35 AM
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reliabilityguySep 27, 2026, 8:21 PM
I am confused. Are you ashamed of “our” crimes (I’m not who the “our” refers to), and this is why you are fine with the atrocities done by Houthis?
badnewSep 27, 2026, 12:46 PM
You are hopelessly lost, good luck
Obscurity4340Sep 27, 2026, 5:22 PM
I'll pray for you
em-beeSep 27, 2026, 4:28 AM
this was posted on 27. of november 2024. on the 3rd of december someone found a correct looking number in a yemen government document which was published in 2005 and updated wikipedia. so at least the country itself was not under any illusion of being bigger than they actually are.
lopisSep 27, 2026, 5:25 AM
Ah I'm glad. That's much better than the solution I had in mind of using the sand from the desert to expand the land into the sea to add extra 100k km of land area, to hide all this embarrassment under the rug.
pseudohadamardSep 28, 2026, 3:50 AM
That would have to be a pretty big rug. I actually know some rug merchants in New York who are having a going-out-of-business sale who might be able to help.
burlesonaSep 27, 2026, 4:19 AM
What I wonder is why anyone noticed this in the first place. Who saw the size of the country in Wikipedia and thought, “really? Let me trace that in Google maps, just to be sure…”
t-3Sep 27, 2026, 5:38 AM
I actually measured the size of (parts of) Yemen on maps a week or two ago, trying to figure out the population density of the Houthi-controlled areas, which contain the majority (~70-80%, hard to say exactly as the population distribution has been changing rapidly in the past decade) of Yemen's population in about 1/3 of it's land.
edoceoSep 27, 2026, 5:35 AM
Something about eyeballs and all bugs being shallow...
kqrSep 27, 2026, 7:56 AM
This reminds me of what Deming used to say: there is no correct value for any measurement, there are only the outcomes of methods chosen to measure something.
asveikauSep 27, 2026, 6:57 AM
I remember hearing from a Yemeni American in the late 90s that the border with Saudi was not defined (mentioned in the article). I wonder if this could be explained more simply that a few sources didn't bother to update this over time due to the ambiguity, they just carried over what had been published before.
walrus01Sep 27, 2026, 8:32 AM
A casual review of the satellite view of the border with Saudi Arabia shows that much of it is desolate uninhabited sand dunes, so it's not like there's border markers such as the US/Canada have. Or likely an accurate survey (you'd need high precision GNSS equipment and something that can traverse serious sand dunes as a vehicle, because no fixed markers and traditional surveying methods have any chance of success there).
inglor_czSep 27, 2026, 9:39 AM
Historically, borders in inhospitable regions where the government cannot project power used to be vague.

Early Medieval European kingdoms usually had border forests, sometimes quite deep (50-100 km), where one end of the forest was definitely Bohemian and the other end definitely Saxon or Austrian, but the exact demarcation within it bothered no one.

There were only two kinds of people crossing them: invading armies and long-distance traders on very few walkable paths. The latter would be taxed prior to entering the city markets, not on the border. The former would be interested in sieging strongholds deeper in the enemy territory, not in taking a slice of wooded territory on the border.

AerroonSep 27, 2026, 3:57 AM
I did not expect this to just be a simple mistake, especially one that's been around for decades. Makes you wonder what other kind of basic facts are wrong.

In the age of satellites, computers, Google maps and the like you would think a mistake like this would be impossible to persist for so long.

wmfSep 27, 2026, 4:55 AM
A bunch of countries are suspected of undercounting their population because so many people are living "off the grid" or deliberately overcounting to get more funding. Probably some of the cases are real and some are just conspiracy theories.
AlotOfReadingSep 27, 2026, 4:29 AM
These kinds of issues have existed since the first human started recording what they owned, and will probably continue plaguing us until the last one dies.
vijayr02Sep 27, 2026, 9:21 AM
No - only till the second last one dies.
kqrSep 27, 2026, 7:50 AM
Imagine how much of published science is statistically significant only due to clerical errors and mistakes in calculation...

(See e.g. The misreporting of statistical results in psychology journals; Bakker, Wicherts; Behaviour Research Methods; 2011.)

lappetSep 27, 2026, 4:27 AM
Great article. Somehow, this gives me hope that curiosity can still be rewarded in this age of information at our fingertips.
rpozarickijSep 27, 2026, 5:13 AM
Although I do hope too that people don't lose their sense of meaning and curiosity too much, it's worth keeping in mind that this article was published in 2024 which was a very different world from now. Curiosity requires energy, and it'll be hard for a creature relying on energy for survival to justify using their own energy for some activity when there's a more energy-efficient way to reach a specific goal. But just like going to the gym makes your body healthier despite the fact that this requires energy, thinking on your own will be increasingly important for maintaining a healthy mind and the sense of self.
bambaxSep 27, 2026, 8:02 AM
Great article. I wonder if the sum of the land areas of all countries on earth matches the global size of emerged land? Or are there other similar errors?
dehrmannSep 27, 2026, 5:04 AM
This is why you read the code, not the documentation.
theteapotSep 27, 2026, 9:38 AM
I suppose it's not worth checking whether Google maps areas are measured using spherical geometry?
titanomachySep 27, 2026, 2:55 PM
You could check, but it would be quite shocking if they weren’t.
hbroomSep 27, 2026, 3:51 AM
Always picture it larger, but it's roughly the size of France. Makes you wonder about logistical challenges there.
tracnarSep 27, 2026, 3:56 PM
This makes me wonder, what's the difference between the 2D area and the 3D topographic surface area? Is the latter even ever measured?
eigenspaceSep 27, 2026, 4:46 PM
3D topographic surface area has the "coastline problem" where the more precisely you measure it, the more it grows.

2D area is stable under increasing measurement precision.

f055Sep 27, 2026, 9:35 AM
Human civilisation is built on such lies ;)
reassess_blindSep 27, 2026, 5:55 AM
I wonder if you sum every countries claimed size, how far off it is from the actual total land on Earth.
cozzydSep 27, 2026, 6:04 AM
Well, this is a pretty perfect usecase for AI (although it's also easy to just get shapefiles from NE and do it yourself, obviously).

Interestingly all of UAE, Yemen and Saudi Arabia have significant discrepancies between the World Factbook and their shapefiles (in every case overestimating), probably all related to not having had a demarcated border in the Rub Al Khali.

reassess_blindSep 27, 2026, 7:23 AM
A quick lazy calculation (including adding in Antartica) the countries totals came up ~2,000,000km2 short. I don't care enough to dive deeper, but if no one is claiming that land I'll happily take it.
jdhzzzSep 27, 2026, 11:32 AM
It's an AI hallucination in slow motion.
yregSep 27, 2026, 11:33 AM
This is such a nice article!
mc32Sep 27, 2026, 3:23 AM
This happens more frequently then one imagines. Quite a few things fail to start from scratch and instead rely on compounded errors over time. Projections, budgets, etc., are sometimes based on stale information.
thr0waway001Sep 27, 2026, 3:19 AM
15 Yemen Road, Yemen
alentredSep 27, 2026, 7:22 AM
I will write you every day.

(I suppose people downvoting this don’t know the reference. Way to make us feel old :) )

defrostSep 27, 2026, 7:27 AM
HN eschews pop culture references, the down voters are almost certain to include those that are aware of US sitcoms.
postsantumSep 27, 2026, 10:00 AM
> I delved into

delved

arthur18097612Sep 27, 2026, 3:09 PM
a nice article!
aaron695Sep 27, 2026, 4:19 AM
[dead]
468854259853Sep 27, 2026, 9:12 AM
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mikelitorisSep 27, 2026, 6:42 AM
Ye man, this is crazy