A white marble plaque set into a stone wall. It is carved with the word MÈTRE, and a thin metal bar with marks runs along it between two stops. — One of the two marble metres still on the walls of Paris, at 36 rue de Vaugirard.
Image: Photo: Airair. The marble metre of 36 rue de Vaugirard, Paris (2008) · CC BY-SA 3.0

A Knaph story

The Story of Length

From a king's forearm to a beam of light

c. 1400 BCE – today

A golden rod from an Egyptian tomb, two astronomers walking across France, a secret mistake and a bridge measured with a student. This is how people agreed on how long a metre is.

A Knaph story

The Story of Length

From a king's forearm to a beam of light

c. 1400 BCE – today

A golden rod from an Egyptian tomb, two astronomers walking across France, a secret mistake and a bridge measured with a student. This is how people agreed on how long a metre is.