Master the Texas Surveyors Exam 2026 – Map Out Your Success!

A league is a unit of distance that traditionally equals about 3 miles. In Texas and in surveying practice, the vara is a common unit of measurement used, especially in Spanish land grants. One vara is defined as approximately 33 inches or about 0.84 meters.

To determine how many varas are in a league, it's necessary to convert miles to varas. Since a league approximates to 3 miles, first we convert miles to feet (1 mile = 5,280 feet), resulting in 3 miles equating to 15,840 feet. To convert feet to varas, we divide by the length of a vara in feet (1 vara ≈ 2.78 feet).

Performing the calculation, we find:

15,840 feet / 2.78 feet per vara ≈ 5,700 varas.

However, the rounded figure used in standard measurement often accounts for practical applications in surveying, arriving at an established measure of 5,000 varas for an easier approximation. This understanding is critical in Texas land descriptions and survey documentation.