A Saxon post milestone (, colloquially sächsische Postmeilensäule or Postsäule) was a milestone in the former Electorate of Saxony that gave distances and journey times to the nearest eight of an hour. The design of the milestones varied according to the distance at which they were placed. They were hewn out of natural stone and could take the shape of an obelisk, an ancient herma or a stele. Their prototype was the Roman milestone, in German a römische Meilensäule, from which 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.