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Malta
land measures

The above table is largely based on data provided by the government of Malta to the United Nations in the mid-20ᵗʰ century¹. The names of the units are Maltese.

A century earlier, during the British occupation, a British author² described a predecessor system of land units based on the southern Italian measures prevalent in Malta during the previous centuries. Except for the canna, the units are seed measures of land. (Martin mentions “square tumoli,” but the tumolo is not a linear unit.) Taking the mid-19ᵗʰ century value of the canna at Pouchet's 2.0880 meters (reported by Doursther, page 83) gives the following result:

Martin, however, states that the salma was 4.44 acres, which may be due to taking a commercially convenient conversion, 3½ palmi = 1 English yard, which makes the canna about 2.090 meters. That equivalence seems to have rippled through Maltese measures.

1. United Nations, 1966.

2. Robert Montgomery Martin.
History of the Colonies of the British Empire in the West Indies, South America, North America, Asia...
London: W. H. Allen & Co. and George Routledge, 1843.
Page 587.

Copyright © 1998 Sizes, Inc.  All rights reserved.
Last revised: 8 May 2001.