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DROP / bde77eb6-4466-4a33-b785-c24728c22042 / Which was larger, the Babylonian ell or the Egyptian ell?

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question

Which was larger, the Babylonian ell or the Egyptian ell?
passage · full text (1,067 characters)
The smaller of the Egyptian ells measured , but the standard Babylonian ell, cast in stone on one of the statues of Gudea, was 49.5 cm (19.49 in), and the larger Egyptian ell was between 52.5 and 52.8 cm (20.67 and 20.79 in). The Books of Samuel portray the Temple as having a Phoenician architect, and in Phoenicia it was the Babylonian ell which was used to measure the size of parts of ships. Thus scholars are uncertain whether the standard Biblical ell would have been 49.5 or 52.5 cm (19.49 or 20.67 in), but are fairly certain that it was one of these two figures. From these figures for the size of a Biblical ell, that of the basic unit — the finger-breadth (Etzba) — can be calculated to be either 2.1 or 2.2 cm (0.83 or 0.87 in); Rav Avraham Chaim Naeh approximates at 2 cm (0.79 in); Talmudic scholar Chazon Ish at 2.38 cm (0.94 in). The mile (Mil) is thus about 963 or 1146 meters (3160 or 3760 ft) — approximately six or seven tenths of a mile, and significantly shorter than the modern statute or land mile of 5280 ft or 1760 yd (approximately 1.6 km).

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Source and history

upstream_id / Original problem ID
bde77eb6-4466-4a33-b785-c24728c22042
task_id
7935c78b-dcd8-548c-97aa-83f8ae1bb3dd
task_key
default--validation--bde77eb6~2d4466~2d4a33~2db785~2dc24728c22042
task_revision_id
1
config / split
default / validation

Official source

initial import