Land surveying is among the oldest professions on the planet. Ever since man has decided a portion of land should belong to a tribe, the necessity for surveying began.

Land surveying is fascinating. The methods used seek to decide which part of land belongs to whom, hopefully ending arguments forever.

The bottom line is, surveying is really a process using mathematical methods to survey land.

The initial accounts of surveying land dates back to ancient Egypt. Experts have discovered evidences that the ancient Egyptians used basic geometry to redraw the lines of boundary once the Nile River overflowed. An Egyptian land register dating back to to 3000 BC was also found.

Following Egyptians, the Romans - also the most powerful civilizations of the ancient world - practiced land surveying. They took it one step further and made "land surveyor" an official position within the Empire. These were called agrimensores, also called Corpus Agrimensorum Romanorum. Although get more info used very simple tools, they were very thorough making use of their jobs and would create straight lines and correct angles by using these tools. After the lines were measured, they would create shallow ditches to mark the lines. In fact, a number of the furrows they made remain today.

One of the recorded land surveying of the "modern" times is that of William the Conqueror who wrote the Domesday Book in 1086. This book is truly a list of names of land owners, the amount of land they owned and other information about the land. Although it was an amazing level of information during this time, the bits of information were not 100% correct. The locations weren't accurate and the maps weren't made to scale.


One of history's greatest icons was also an avid surveyor - Napoleon Bonaparte. The interest in surveying land was really just a product of his want to conquer the world. Napoleon Bonaparte founded a registry called the cadastre. This consists of a registry of properties of a county, ownership details, locations so when much information regarding the land's value. Yes, Napoleon Bonaparte can be viewed as a land surveyor - and an extremely smart man.

The techniques used for land surveying also have evolved on the centuries. In the past, people would use whatever may help them determine the distance from one point to another. This means using chains with links and also ropes. Needless to say, this didn't give accurate results however they didn't have the technology we've back then.

Today, land surveyors have the very best technologies to greatly help them with their job. There's GPS, or Global Positioning System, that is probably the most accurate technologies used today. Total stations are also very important to a land surveyor, which employs the utilization of an EDM or Electronic Distance Measurement device plus a theodolite that allows for more precise angle and distance measurements.