Written by A standard Imperial-I class star destroyer would have been 3 times taller than the Pyramids of Giza
At nearly 1 mile (1,600 meters) in length and 455.40 meters tall, the Imperial-I class Star Destroyer – the same starship seen in the original Star Wars film, ‘A New Hope’ – would have been massive if it had ever come to visit Earth. Compared to the ancient Great Pyramid of Giza which was 138.5 meters (454 ft) tall, this standard star destroyer model would have been about three times taller – effectively large enough to loom over a city.
And while the dimensions of the wedge-shaped behemoth of a starship have had some minor variations in Star Wars encyclopedias and texts over the years, the canon reference book, Star Wars: Dawn of the Rebellion: The Visual Guide establishes the star destroyer’s size in concordance with these prior texts, laying to rest any potential disputes about its size.
From the cornerstone reference book, Ultimate Star Wars, we learn that the ship could house a crew of about 37,085 personnel plus a complement of 9,700 stormtroopers for a grand total of about 46,785 individuals – roughly the size of a small city. In addition, the ship carried a powerful armament including sixty Taim & Bak XX-9 heavy turbolaser batteries, ten Phylon Q7 tractor beam projectors for pulling in smaller ships as well as sixty large Borstel NK-7 ion cannons and several powerful turbolasers.
Other notable world comparisons to the starship from a galaxy far, far way could include the Eiffel Tower and the Taj Mahal. Completed in 1889 in Paris, France, the Eiffel Tower is one of the most iconic edifices in Europe and is 330 meters (1,083 ft) tall including the tip. Side-by-side with a star destroyer, this would have meant that it would take a little less than one and a half Eiffel towers stacked on top of each other to reach the deflector shield domes.
More ancient than the Eiffel Tower, the Taj Mahal would have looked even smaller than Paris’ tower if the Empire had ever decided to land next to it on Earth. Completed in 1653 in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India and standing 73 meters (240 ft) tall, it would have taken more than six of the palaces stacked on top of each other to reach the height of a star destroyer.
At the height of the Empire’s reign in the galaxy, the video game, Star Wars: Uprising suggests that there were over 25,000 star destroyers in deployment. This incredible figure alone provides insight into the magnitude of resources the Empire had at its disposal. Though there were likely many bureaucratic justifications for such a massive fleet, most likely, the Empire did not create such a mass of city-sized ships for direct military application alone, but rather to instill fear and subordination across the ever-dimming galaxy.