EL is an ancient measure of length, reaching (at least in the Netherlands) approximately 69.
4 cm. The measure was
local, in every
major commercial center, established to differences occurred:
Amsterdam el
68.8 cm
Brabant el 69.2 cm or 16 waists
Delfsche el
68.2 cm
The Hague or ordinary el 69.4 cm
Goesche el 69 cm
Twente el 58.7 cm
Workumer or Frisian El 70.9 cm
The name is derived from the length of the forearm, the ulna.
One could thus in a simple way measure lengths.
In connection with the levying of excise duty, The Hague el became the national standard in 1725.
When introducing the Dutch metric
system in 1820, the El equated to
one meter.
The Law of April 7, 1869 (Gazette No. 1957) were former names, including el abolished and replaced by the now customary terms. In the period 1820-1870 was a El of 10 palms (decimetres) or 100 inches (centimeters) or 1000 lines (millimeters).
El in the
Bible and the Hadith books (ziraa) discussed, for example, the dimensions of the ark, is approximately 52 cm.
