Especially in the context of this sentence:

> およそ二十キロ四方の巨大な湖は、ひっくり返した瓢簞のような形をしており、上の湖と下の湖に分かれている。

To my understanding, this sentence translates as "This lake was approximately
twenty square kilometers in size, and resembled an inverted gourd, divided
into an upper and lower lake." But I've seen a translation which said "This
enormous lake had a radius of approximately twenty kilometers," which I don't
particularly get. キロ四方 means 'square kilometer', right? Is "radius of 20
kilometers" a mistranslation?
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-10-28T14:28:56.270
82354
2020-10-28T15:57:05.303
2020-10-28T15:18:40.723
5010
40750
question
meaning translation
What is the meaning of キロ四方?
I would say neither of the translations is correct. 20キロ四方 basically means "20
km × 20 km" (that is, 400 km2). 四方 literally means "four sides (of a square)".
平方キロ is the word for "square kilometer" (平方 = square, x2).

  * 20キロ四方 = 20 km × 20 km
  * 20平方キロ = 20 km2 = 20 square kilometers

(Confusingly, we also say 20キロ平方, which literally means "20 kilometer's
square" and thus is a synonym for 20キロ四方 = 20 km × 20 km.)

For example, [this
article](https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/383e2a618fdb43fa1ee18a8f9504403385570e9e)
says 5キロ四方 referring to a 5 km square grid (i.e., each cell is 25 km2 in
area).

キロ四方 is usually used with square-like objects, but of course a real lake is
not square. In a case like this, you can think it's roughly 20 km in
_diameter_ (not _radius_ ), or "20 km from north to south and 20 km from east
to west".
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-10-28T15:16:32.600
82356
2020-10-28T15:57:05.303
2020-10-28T15:57:05.303
5010
5010
82354
answer