Just how far did Game of Thrones ‘ Ned Stark travel when he left Winterfell to lose his head? It’s a bit difficult to get the scale of the hit fantasy series down, but there’s a new fan-made infographic that aims to put that scale into terms somewhat more precise than “epic.” Plus, it compares the size of a dragon and dinosaur!
Getting a better visual sense of the scale of Game of Thrones is absolutely essential if one is to effectively waste time reading about the series in the interim between episodes. Unfortunately, HBO’s adaptation of George R. R. Martin’s fantasy series isn’t big on the numbers. No cutaways from seamy goings-on in Littlefinger’s brothel to show a surveying team making its way up the King’s Road. Nope, Game of Thrones is heavy on the intrigue, light on the integrals.
Fortunately, the nerds at The Daily Dot have pulled together a host of information from the show, the books, and interviews with assorted cast, crew, and creators to form the basis of nifty series of infographics. For your benefit, of course; not because they had nothing better to do or are far too devoted to the series.
First up is The Wall, the monumental barrier erected to keep he real threat to Westeros at bay, so that Game of Thrones ‘ endless political intrigue can play out. Were the White Walkers and Wildlings to scale the wall, they’d have to climb up some 200 meters. That’s several times the height of China’s Great Wall, though the Game of Thrones Wall is nowhere near as long as the Great Wall. China’s colossal barrier runs 13,171 miles – no, really, we checked it three times – while the Thrones Wall stretches only 300 miles.
That 300 mile figure is important, as The Daily Dot Crew use it as a ruler to measure out the rest of Game of Thrones ‘ Seven Kingdoms. They’re not exactly precise, of course, but they’re the closest thing we’ll get until HBO actually greenlights a Game of Thrones: Surveyors of Fire And Ice series.
With solid numbers on the Wall’s length, the continent of Westeros turns out to be bigger than the continental United States. At the same time, though, the Seven Kingdoms hold only about 40 million inhabitants, according to one assistant to Martin. Westeros, then, is a vast expanse of uninhabited land, peppered here and there with little enclaves of civilization ruled over by cutthroats and schemers, with everyone terrified of what lies in the North. So, like, a less-nice Canada.
(We kid, we kid.)
Of course, the real fun comes when the infographic artists turn an eye to Game of Thrones ‘ most fantastic element: the dragons. Ever wonder why no one in Westeros seems to care right now that Danaerys is on the other side of the narrow sea with three dragons? Because they’re baby dragons, and baby dragons can be put off for the moment. Full-size dragons, though, are a different story.
In the books, Game of Thrones ‘ dragons are described in glorious detail, with Martin giving delicious little morsels about Balerion, the Black Dread, the greatest of the Targaryen’s terrible beasts, could swallow a wooly mammoth whole. Doing the math, that works out to a beast 76 meters long. That’s 19 times longer than an African elephant, more than twice as long as a blue whale. Balerion, in theory, would be bigger than a dinosaur. And he could fly. And breathe fire.
The Daily Dot ‘s Game of Thrones infographic has some other terrific tidbits about everyone’s favorite fantasy epic. How long is the King’s Road? Is King’s Landing bigger than Washington, D.C.? How far did [ spoiler ] fall when [spoiler] got pushed out of the Eyrie’s Moon Door? How many men could The Mountain cleave in two with a single sword swing? That last one we made up, but we had to find a way to work The Mountain into this writeup. You non- Game of Thrones book readers are going to veritably soil yourselves when Tyrion’s trial-by-combat goes down.
All images via The Daily Dot .