Stage

Stage , stadium, stage ( Greek στάδιον ) - a unit of measurement of distances in the ancient systems of measures of many peoples, introduced for the first time in Babylon , and then transferred to the Greeks and received its Greek name. Not certain enough. In Babylon, the steps were taken as the distance that a person walks with a calm step for the period of time from the appearance of the first ray of the sun when it rises to the moment when the entire solar disk is above the horizon. If this output of the sun lasts about two minutes, then during this time a person walks from 185 to 195 m at an average walking speed. As you can see, this measure is very relative.

Greek stages - the distance of 600 feet of Heracles ^[1] . According to legend, it was precisely so many steps that Hercules managed to take from the moment when the first sun's rays appeared over the Krona hill in Olympia and before the sun rose above the ground.

There are various stage values:

• Babylonian = 194 m;
• Greek = 178 m;
  • attic = 177.6 m;
• Egyptian = 172.5 m;
  • stages of the system of pharaohs = 209.4 m;
• Ptolemaic and Roman = 185 m;
• stages (ghalva) of the Assyro-Chaldean-Persian system = 230.4 m.

It is not known exactly which stages were used to measure distances at the Olympic Games; some scientists enter the Olympic stages, equating it to 192.27 meters.