The Greek stadia has been proved to have been a specific length but what is not commonly known is the relationship between the length of the Stadia and geodetic properties. The Stadia also shares mathematical relationships with Egyptian measures showing that the underlying knowledge sustaining this system came from Egypt as it would be foolish to think the Egyptians incorporated Greek ideas into their extremely ancient methods of calculation. As has been shown elsewhere the Egyptians had a geodetic system of measurement based upon the length of the Royal Cubit.
The length of the Greek foot varies according to place and time but using the Parthenon as the structure which has been measured very accurately most authorities agree that it is based on a proportion of length to width which we have accurately measured.( see also Penrose Plutarch describes it twice in ( Pericles13 and Cato 5 as "Hekatompedon" , ie. "hundred foot. The ratio of width to length has been measured by Stuart and others to be 100 by 225 units using a unit length of 308.6mm which gives us a Greek foot of 12.15 ft. as the Parthenon has been repeatedly measured to be 101.7" in width and 227.05 inches in length using a modern english foot.
This length is not a mere random calculation as a length of 12.15 inches is exactly 1/100 of a second of arc at the lattitude of Athens and is also exactly 1/600 of a Greek stadia. This length is also related to the Egyptian length known as the Remen of which 500 are to be found in the Greek Stadia. One Remen is exactly 14.58 " and this figure times 500 does indeed equal one Greek Stadia if each Greek foot is equal to 12.15 inches; this gives us the length of the Stadia as 7,290 inches or exactly 1/10 of a Nautical mile. (6075 ft).
According to Donald Engels writing in the American Journal of Philology the
length of the stade Eratosthenes used was the Attic stade of 184.98m giving a
Stade of 606ft 10 inches and a Greek foot of 308.3mm. This measurement has been
based upon the length of the stadium in Athens where the distance between the
starting and finishing lines of the "Stadion" is exactly 606ft 10 inches
or 184.98m. This makes the foot to be 12.137 inches or 308.3mm. see W.D.Dinsmore
,"The Architecture of Ancient Greece ( New York 1973 ) 251.
American Journal of Philology 106 (1985) pp.298-311.
John Morrison "Ancient Greek Measures of length in Nautical contexts"
Antiquity 65 (1991) : 298-305.
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