What was the initial, profoundly symbolic definition established for the fundamental unit of length, the meter?

One ten-millionth of the distance from the North Pole to the Equator, measured along the meridian passing through Paris.

The scientific commission sought an immutable standard that was universal and therefore impervious to political decree or local custom, ultimately settling on the planet itself as the reference. The resulting definition for the meter was set as precisely one ten-millionth of the total distance measured along the meridian that runs directly through Paris, connecting the North Pole to the Equator. This definition ingeniously linked the basic unit of length directly to the physical dimensions of the Earth. This choice was highly symbolic, anchoring the new system in a tangible, seemingly eternal feature of the natural world, which was crucial for gaining widespread acceptance against entrenched traditional measures.