ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Megalithic yard

Imagine that you are at the beach and you want to build a big sandcastle. You need to make sure the blocks you use are all the same size so your castle will look nice and neat. You measure with your hands and find out that each block is about the same size as your hand. This makes it easy to build your castle because everything is the same size.

Now, think about people who lived a long time ago, before they had rulers and tape measures. They also wanted to build big structures that were neat and organized, like giant temples or tombs. But how could they make sure all their blocks were the same size? The answer is, they made their own kind of ruler! They called it the megalithic yard.

The megalithic yard was a way of measuring length that people used a long time ago. They used it to build big structures like Stonehenge or the pyramids in Egypt. A megalithic yard is about 2.72 feet long, which is a little shorter than the length of a baseball bat. They used this measurement for everything, so that all the blocks and stones they used were the same size.

Now, you might wonder how they came up with this measurement. No one really knows for sure, but some people think it might have been based on things found in nature. Maybe they measured the length of a certain kind of tree trunk or the distance between two big rocks that were always the same distance apart. Or maybe they had their own special way of measuring things that we just don't know about.

In any case, the megalithic yard was an important tool for ancient people who wanted to build impressive structures. By using this measurement, they were able to make sure everything was the same size and everything looked nice and neat. It's like building a sandcastle using your hands – everything is the same size and your castle looks great!
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