Black Mesa is the setting of the hit video game “Half-Life”. Released in 1998, it revolutionized first person shooters and was the first game made by Valve. The Black Mesa Science Facility is located in the desert of New Mexico, and is largely underground. In Black Mesa, an anomaly called a “Resonance Cascade” occurs. It opens a portal to the border dimension “Xen” and allows a multitude of hostile alien creatures to come through and attack the facility. The Resonance Cascade also causes significant structural damage to Black Mesa, closing off many passage ways to the surface, disallowing escape. On top of that, the US military came to Black Mesa to cover up the situation by killing all scientists and employees associated with Black Mesa. Gordon Freeman, the player character and the scientist at ground zero of the experiment that caused the resonance cascade, is tasked with traversing the massive facility, fighting aliens, US Marines, helicopters, and tanks. Throughout the facility Gordon Freeman must make his way through radioactive waste, closed off parts of the facility, sewage systems, missile silos, and even the surface in order to enter the border dimension Xen and stop the aliens once and for all.

But just how big *is* Black Mesa?

Black Mesa is 2,000 square Miles (Or 3218.688 Square Kilometers) according to some official source on “BMRF.com”. I found multiple sources claiming that the website was official and it stated that Black Mesa was 2000 square miles, however the website doesn’t seem to exist anymore.

Anyway, just how big is 2,000 miles? The country of Trinidad and Tobago (One country made up of 2 islands) is 1,980 square miles, making it about the same size as Black Mesa. Let’s use some more well known comparisons.

Palestine is only 300 square miles larger than Black Mesa. If you were to exclude West Bank from Palestine though, then Palestine would be about the same size as Black Mesa.

Let’s look at Rhode Island: the smallest state in the US. Rhode Island is about 1,500 Square miles. This makes Black Mesa larger than Rhode Island, with Rhode Island being only 75% of Black Mesa’s size. Delaware, the second smallest state in the Union, is 2,500 square miles, making it only 25% larger than Black Mesa.

Let’s go international again. Lebanon is twice the size of Black Mesa. Black Mesa is twice the size of Hong Kong and Luxembourg. Black Mesa is also 4 times the size of the Faroe Islands, and 8 times the size of St. Lucia.

What about Cities? Black Mesa is slightly larger than Cairo in Egypt, and slightly smaller than Karachi in Pakistan. These cities are the largest in their respective countries, and the 20th and 21st largest cities on earth. Black Mesa is also larger than the following Cities:

•Moscow, Russia (1,560 Square Miles, 23rd largest)

•Tokyo, Japan (1,361 square Miles, 25th largest)

•London, UK (977 Square Miles, 31st largest)

•Houston, Texas (965 Square Miles, 33rd largest)

And larger than the following Countries and territories;

•Monaco (.78 Square Miles)

•Vatican City (.19 Square Miles, smallest country)

•Liechtenstein (62 Square Miles)

•Maldives (120 Square Miles)

•Barbados (170 Square Miles)

•Andorra (181 Square Miles)

•Singapore (280 Square Miles)

•Samoa (1,097 Square Miles)

But Black Mesa is in New Mexico, correct? How does it size up compared to the rest of New Mexico? Mora County in New Mexico is 1,931 Square Miles. This makes it the New Mexico county that is closest in size to Black Mesa. We could assume that Black Mesa is located entirely in Mora County.

Black Mesa is truly massive, and that’s not even factoring in the depth of Black Mesa. However, even with the enormous size of Black Mesa, it’s nothing compared to your mom.