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How tall are the Lilliputians in Gulliver’s Travels?

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Illustration of Lemuel Gulliver lying on the ground, tied down by tiny Lilliputians, with crowds and small buildings in the background, from Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels. — Gulliver’s Travels Lemuel Gulliver in Lilliput, illustration from an edition of Jonathan Swift's *Gulliver's Travels*.

In the novel Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift, the inhabitants of Lilliput are described as being less than 6 inches (15 cm) tall. Their diminutive stature is used by Swift to mirror their small-mindedness, as they engage in petty political debates and ridiculous customs that serve as a satire of 18th-century English politics.12