a saxon milepost (, colloquially "sächsische postmeilensäule" or "postsäule") was a milepost in the former electorate of saxony that gave distances expressed as journey times to the nearest eighth of an hour. with one hour being the equivalent of one league, this corresponds to a distance of about 566 m. the design of the mileposts varied according to the distance at which they were placed. they were hewn from natural stone into the shape of an obelisk, an ancient herma or a stele. their prototype was the roman milepost. from its german name "römische meilensäule" the rather inaccurate german description of "säule" (lit.: "column") was derived. the saxon head postal director ("oberpostdirektor"), paul vermehren, brought about their inception based on official distance surveys, whose results were given in leagues on the post mileposts. a league in saxony at that time (1722 to 1840) was meant to be an hour's journey, equivalent to half a mile or 4.531 kilometres.