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THE POLAR MYSTERIES 135<br />
As archaeological findings go, the two discoveries would<br />
hardly seem to have anything in common. Yet if one uses a little<br />
bit of imagination and calculation, this first impression changes.<br />
The two bits of information could very well be pointing to a system<br />
of measurement used by ancient Arabs so very long ago that<br />
the Arabs themselves have forgotten it and that no archaeologist<br />
ever knew about.<br />
Thousands of years ago before the decimal system became<br />
generally known, they didn't use the pi factor of 3.141593 to calculate<br />
the circumference of a circle. Instead, the much more convenient<br />
division 22/7 was employed because it was simpler. If<br />
the radius of a circle was 7 imits, then the circumference was 44<br />
same units. It is quite logical to use this same system to divide<br />
the equator into 44 units of 910,980 m each and to estimate the<br />
radius of our planet as 7 times 910,980 m, or 6,376,860 m, which<br />
is how the ancestors of the Arabs calculated the circumference of<br />
the globe at 40,083 km, instead of 40,075 km as we now measure<br />
it. Not bad at all, especially when one considers that instead of<br />
our precise figure of 6,378 km, they figured that the radius of our<br />
globe was 6,377 km.<br />
When we divide 910,980 m by 3 miUion, we obtain a foot of<br />
0.3036 m, nearly the same as the foot of the valley of Indus of<br />
0.3018 m or the feet of the Egyptians or the Mayas that measured<br />
exactly 0.3 meters.<br />
This new foot measure of Baghdad could very well have been<br />
the base for at least three monetary systems. One cubic foot of<br />
Baghdad would displace 28,000 cc of water and weigh 28 kg.<br />
Such a weight would equal 6.600 gold dinars of 4.24 gm each as<br />
used in Arab lands, or 9.600 dirhams of silver of 2.92 each in circulation<br />
all over North Africa, or even 2,600 gold or silver rupees<br />
of 10.77 gn^ ^ach in India today.<br />
It is not difficult to believe that our ancestors knew the approximate<br />
dimensions of our planet and used this<br />
information,<br />
clad in religious rites and rules, to express it in measures that<br />
corresponded to the human limbs. We can even accept the fact<br />
that the rotation of the earth's surface had been estimated at<br />
1,000 Babylonian cubits of 0.4629 m per second or 100,000<br />
Mycenaean feet of 0.2777 ^ P^r minute, fantastic as it may be.<br />
But when we have to recognize now that oiu: forefathers knew
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