Summary
- The Fatimid Caliphate reached 4.1 million km² in 969, the year it conquered Egypt, and was down to 2.1 million by 972 (Taagepera, International Studies Quarterly, 1997)
- Songhai covered about 1.4 million km² in the early 16th century, the largest empire south of the Sahara and about one and a half times modern Nigeria (Wikipedia, "Songhai Empire"; BlackPast)
- Ten empires based in Africa reached 1 million km² or more: six in North Africa or Egypt, two in West Africa and two in the Horn (Taagepera, 1997; Turchin, Adams and Hall, 2006)
- Aksum, Mali and the Ethiopian Empire, in places five to seven, are separated by less than 30,000 km², and the last three entries tie exactly
| # | Empire | Capital at Peak (Modern Country) | Period | Peak Area | Peak Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fatimid Caliphate | al-Mansuriya (Tunisia) | 909–1171 | 4.1 million km² | 969 |
| 2 | Mamluk Sultanate | Cairo (Egypt) | 1250–1517 | 2.1 million km² | c. 1300–1400 |
| 3 | Almohad Caliphate | Marrakesh (Morocco) | 1121–1269 | 2.0 million km² | c. 1200 |
| 4 | Songhai Empire | Gao (Mali) | 1464–1591 | About 1.4 million km² | c. 1500–1528 |
| 5 | Kingdom of Aksum | Aksum (Ethiopia) | c. 1st–10th century AD | 1.25 million km² | c. 350 |
| 6 | Mali Empire | Disputed; traditionally Niani (Guinea) | c. 1235–c. 1610 | About 1.24 million km² | c. 1350 |
| 7 | Ethiopian Empire | Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) | 1270–1974 | 1.22 million km² | 1952–1974 |
| 8 | New Kingdom of Egypt | Thebes (Egypt) | c. 1550–c. 1070 BC | 1.0 million km² | c. 1450 BC |
| 9 | Ptolemaic Kingdom | Alexandria (Egypt) | 305–30 BC | 1.0 million km² | c. 301 BC |
| 10 | Almoravid dynasty | Marrakesh (Morocco) | c. 1050–1147 | 1.0 million km² | c. 1120 |
This list is ranked by peak land area, largest first. An empire counts as African if its capital stood on African soil at its peak, whatever the origin of its ruling house. Figures come first from academic datasets that measured empires on maps in historical atlases; where a competing figure exists, the entry gives it. Entries 8 to 10 tie and are listed oldest first. Every area is an estimate.
Selected Details About Each Empire on the List
1. Fatimid Caliphate (modern Tunisia, then Egypt)
First on the largest measured area of any empire ruled from Africa: 4.1 million km² in 969 (Taagepera, 1997; Turchin, Adams and Hall, 2006). That is about 1.7 times modern Algeria. An Arab Isma'ili Shia dynasty founded it in Tunisia in 909 with Kutama Berber forces, and moved the court to newly founded Cairo in 973 (Wikipedia, "Fatimid Caliphate"). The peak was brief: 2.1 million km² by 972. Saladin abolished the caliphate in 1171.
2. Mamluk Sultanate (modern Egypt)
Second, at 2.1 million km², with one dataset dating to 1300 and the other to 1400. From Cairo, it ruled Egypt, the Levant, and the Hejaz from 1250 to 1517. Its rulers were freed slave soldiers, mostly Turkic until 1382 and Circassian after. They beat a Mongol army at Ain Jalut in 1260 and took Acre from the Crusaders in 1291. It sits above the Almohads only on the dataset that measures both the same way. The Ottomans took Cairo on 22 January 1517.
3. Almohad Caliphate (modern Morocco)
Third on 2.0 million km² around 1200 (Turchin, Adams and Hall, 2006). A second dataset gives 2.3 million for 1150, on a line that combines the Almohads with the Almoravids they were replacing; taken alone, it would lift them to second. The movement began among Masmuda Berbers under Ibn Tumart, based at Tinmel in the Atlas Mountains. His successor Abd al-Mu'min took Marrakesh in 1147 and declared himself caliph. All of Muslim Iberia was Almohad by 1172. The Marinids seized Marrakesh in 1269.
4. Songhai Empire (modern Mali, Niger and Nigeria)
Fourth, and the largest empire south of the Sahara, on about 1.4 million km² in the early 16th century. This is the least secure figure here. Reference works repeat it, but we could not trace it to a measured study. The only measured figure is 0.8 million km² for 1550, which its author marks as uncertain, and it would drop Songhai out of the top ten. We rank on 1.4 million because 1550 falls after the reign of Askia Muhammad (1493–1528). A Moroccan army broke the empire at Tondibi on 13 March 1591. The full story is in The Fall of Songhai: How Morocco Invaded the Empire in 1591.
5. Kingdom of Aksum (modern Ethiopia and Eritrea)
Fifth on 1.25 million km² around 350 (Turchin, Adams and Hall, 2006). The date falls in the reign of King Ezana, who made Christianity the state religion and conquered Kush. Wikipedia's article on Aksum also gives about 2.5 million km² for the 6th century, after the annexation of Himyar in Yemen. We could not trace that figure to a measured study. If it held, Aksum would rank second. The kingdom fell in the 10th century.
6. Mali Empire (modern Mali, Guinea and Senegal)
Sixth on about 1.24 million km² around 1350 (David Conrad, Empires of Medieval West Africa, 2009, as cited by Wikipedia, "Mali Empire"). The measured figure is 1.1 million km² for 1380 (Taagepera, 1997), which would put Mali seventh. Sundiata Keita founded it after the Battle of Kirina around 1235. Mansa Musa, who took the throne around 1312, annexed Timbuktu in 1324. Mali lasted about 375 years, against Songhai's 127. It lost Timbuktu in 1433 and broke up around 1610. Read more in The Rise and Fall of the Mali Empire.
7. Ethiopian Empire (modern Ethiopia and Eritrea)
Seventh on 1,221,900 km², its area after Eritrea was federated with Ethiopia in 1952 (Wikipedia, "Ethiopian Empire"). It is the only entry whose peak is modern, and the only figure based on mapped modern borders. The Solomonic dynasty ruled from about 1270. Menelik II's conquests from 1878 to 1904 brought Ethiopia to its modern boundaries, and his victory over Italy at Adwa in 1896 secured its independence. Without Eritrea, the area was 1,104,300 km², still seventh. The Derg deposed Haile Selassie on 12 September 1974.
8. New Kingdom of Egypt (modern Egypt and Sudan)
Tied for eighth on 1.0 million km², reached around 1450 BC and again around 1300 BC, with a stated margin of 0.3 million either way (Taagepera, Social Science Research, 1978). It is the oldest entry by more than a thousand years, and at its peak it was the largest empire the world had yet seen. Under Thutmose III, Egypt's borders ran from the Fourth Cataract of the Nile in Nubia to modern Syria. The capital was Thebes. By 1150 BC, it had lost Nubia and its Asian lands.
9. Ptolemaic Kingdom (modern Egypt)
Tied for eighth on 1.0 million km² around 301 BC (Taagepera, 1979, as cited by Wikipedia, "List of largest empires"; we could not open the original paper). Ptolemy I, a Macedonian general of Alexander the Great, declared himself ruler in 305 BC and governed from Alexandria. The dynasty was foreign in origin, but its capital and core were Egyptian, so it meets this list's rule. Beyond Egypt, it held eastern Libya, Sinai, and northern Nubia. It ended when Cleopatra VII died in 30 BC, and Egypt became a Roman province.
10. Almoravid dynasty (modern Morocco and Mauritania)
Tied for eighth on 1.0 million km² around 1120 (Turchin, Adams and Hall, 2006), and listed tenth only because it is the most recent of the three. It grew from a coalition of nomadic Sanhaja Berber tribes in what is now Mauritania and Western Sahara, and founded Marrakesh as its capital around 1070. At its widest, the empire ran about 3,000 kilometres from north to south. The last Almoravid ruler was killed when the Almohads captured Marrakesh in 1147.
Quick Answers to Commonly Asked Questions About this Topic
What was the largest empire in African history?
The Fatimid Caliphate, by land area. It covered 4.1 million km² in 969. South of the Sahara, the largest was Songhai, at about 1.4 million km².
Was the Songhai Empire bigger than the Mali Empire?
On the standard figures, yes: about 1.4 million km² against about 1.24 million. The one dataset that measured both gives Mali 1.1 million in 1380 and Songhai 0.8 million in 1550, but that Songhai figure is for a year after its peak and is marked uncertain.
Why do North African and Egyptian empires fill most of this list?
Because the list counts any empire with its capital in Africa, and those states held huge stretches of thinly peopled desert. The researcher behind most of these figures calls control of desert areas a permanent measuring problem. Area is a measure of reach. It does not measure wealth or population.
Why are Kanem-Bornu, Sokoto and Kush not on the list?
Each falls below the 1 million km² mark or has no measured figure. Kanem is put at about 777,000 km² and Sokoto at about 400,000. The 0.5 million km² sometimes quoted for Kush is a figure for Egypt under its Kushite dynasty. The Ayyubids are left out because their capital was Damascus from 1174 to 1218, the years of their greatest extent.
How do historians measure the size of an ancient empire?
They measure the area shown for it on maps in historical atlases, and give a margin of error. Size is taken as the land an empire actually controlled, which can be far less than it claimed.
Key Sources
Other sources are named in brackets in the text. All pages pulled October 11, 2026.
- Rein Taagepera, "Expansion and Contraction Patterns of Large Polities: Context for Russia", International Studies Quarterly (1997). https://escholarship.org/content/qt3cn68807/qt3cn68807.pdf
- Peter Turchin, Jonathan M. Adams and Thomas D. Hall, "East-West Orientation of Historical Empires and Modern States", Journal of World-Systems Research (2006). https://jwsr.pitt.edu/ojs/jwsr/article/download/369/381
- Rein Taagepera, "Size and Duration of Empires: Growth-Decline Curves, 3000 to 600 B.C.", Social Science Research (1978). https://escholarship.org/content/qt6wf6m5qg/qt6wf6m5qg.pdf
- Wikipedia, "List of largest empires". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_empires
