I found the following in Wikipedia:
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A dunam or dönüm, dunum, donum is a unit of area used in the Ottoman Empire
and still used, in various standardized versions, in many countries formerly
part of the Ottoman Empire. It was defined as "forty standard paces in
length and breadth", but varied considerably from place to place.
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Versions include:
In Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey it is 1,000 square metres (10,764 sq
ft). Before the end of the Ottoman Empire and during the early years of the
British Mandate of Palestine, the size of a dönüm was 919.3 square metres
(9,895 sq ft), but in 1928 the metric dunam of 1000 square metres was
adopted, and this is still used.
Northern Cyprus, the donum is 14,400 square feet (1,337.8 m²).
In Iraq it is 2,500 m2 (26,910 sq ft).
Other countries using a dunam of some size include Libya, Syria and the
countries of the former Yugoslavia.
The Greek stremma has approximately the same size, and the word has the same
meaning ('turning').
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The above list covers the entire Ottoman Empire apart from North Africa.
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf
Of Pierre Abbat
Sent: 06 February 2009 16:02
To: U.S. Metric Association
Subject: [USMA:42896] Re: ectare was: An Associated Press article
... snip
Do you know anyone from the eastern Mediterranean countries where they
actually use the dunam? Do they find them easier to calculate with?
Pierre
