Issyk-Kul is 1.10× the size of Brunei

Issyk-Kul (alkaline lake) covers about 6,260 km² (2,420 mi²) and Brunei (country) about 5,720 km² (2,210 mi²). Below, both outlines are drawn at one scale and centred on each other. The Issyk-Kul outline is Natural Earth’s, checked against the published area.

6,260km²Issyk-Kul
5,720km²Brunei

50 km

Issyk-Kul
Brunei

What fits

Brunei is 91% of the size of Issyk-Kul.
Issyk-Kul is larger by 546 km² (211 mi²), which is 9.5% of the area of Brunei.
Measured in Belgiums: Issyk-Kul is about 0.20, Brunei about 0.19.

How they differ

Their centres are about 5,610 km apart.
A standard web map misstates the comparison: Issyk-Kul at 42°N is drawn about 1.8× too large and Brunei at 5°N about 1.0×, so the map shows Issyk-Kul as 2.00× the size of Brunei instead of 1.10×.
Together Issyk-Kul and Brunei cover 12,000 km², close to the size of Vanuatu (12,300 km², 2.7% bigger).
The gap between them, 546 km², is about the size of Isle of Man (575 km²).
Issyk-Kul's centre is 37.9° of latitude, about 4,220 km, farther north than Brunei's.
Issyk-Kul is a salt or alkaline lake and ranks 24th of the 104 lakes on sizeversus by area.
Brunei ranks 169th of 212 countries by area.
Laid out flat, Issyk-Kul stretches about 66 km north to south and 175 km east to west; Brunei about 116 km by 151 km.
Poured over Brunei, the 1,738 km³ that Wikidata records for Issyk-Kul would stand 304 m deep.
Wikidata’s published figure of 6,240 km² agrees with our measured 6,260 km², to within 2%.

Who wins on what

Measure	Winner	By
Larger area	Issyk-Kul	1.10×
Farther north	Issyk-Kul	37.9° of latitude
Stretched more on a web map	Issyk-Kul	1.8× against 1.0×

Both against the same yardsticks

Yardstick	Issyk-Kul	Brunei
Belgium 30,700 km²	0.20×	0.19×
United Kingdom 244,000 km²	0.03×	0.02×
Germany 358,000 km²	0.02×	0.02×
Japan 374,000 km²	0.02×	0.02×
France 548,000 km²	0.01×	0.01×
India 3,151,000 km²	1 in 503	1 in 551
Brazil 8,473,000 km²	1 in 1,353	1 in 1,482
United States 9,447,000 km²	1 in 1,509	1 in 1,653
Russia 16,980,000 km²	1 in 2,711	1 in 2,970

Each figure is the place's area divided by the yardstick's.

Side by side

	Issyk-Kul	Brunei
Is a	Alkaline lakelake on sizeversus	CountryAsia
Area, measured	6,260 km²2,420 mi²	5,720 km²2,210 mi²
Area, published	6,240 km²Wikidata	5,770 km²Wikidata
Rank by area	24th of 104lakes	169th of 212countries
Greatest depth	668 mWikidata	–
Volume	1,738 km³	–
Latitude range	42°N to 43°N	4°N to 5°N
On the shore	1 on the shore	–

Published figures: Wikidata (CC0). A lake or a sea has no legal boundary: the measured area is that of Natural Earth’s outline, and it is shown beside the published one.

Natural Earth’s outlines of Kyrgyzstan contain or lie within 4 km of the outline of Issyk-Kul. That is what its geometry says, and it is not a statement about who owns the water or where any border runs in it.

Similar in size to Issyk-Kul

Similar in size to Brunei

More comparisons

Sources and method

Outlines: Lakes and seas: Natural Earth 1:10m physical vectors (public domain), kept only where the measured area is within 10% of the published one. Countries and regions: Natural Earth, 1:10m Admin 0 and Admin 1, public domain.
Boundary: De facto, as drawn by Natural Earth. A lake or a sea has no legal boundary of its own; the outline is a cartographic one.
Area: Measured on the WGS84 ellipsoid from the full-detail outlines, shown rounded. The published figure comes from Wikidata (CC0), fetched 2026-11-11, and is shown beside the measured one.
Drawing: Each outline is projected with an equal-area projection centred on its own centroid, so areas stay true and the two can be laid over each other.
Data built: 2026-11-11

Full method