Notes on the annals of Land Surveying

Land surveying is one of the oldest professions on the planet. Ever since man has decided that a part of land should participate in a tribe, the necessity for surveying began.

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

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

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

Following Egyptians, the Romans - also probably 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, often known as Corpus Agrimensorum Romanorum. Although they used very simple tools, they were very thorough with 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. Actually, 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 number of land they owned along with other information about the land. While it was an amazing quantity of information during this time, the pieces 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 a devoted surveyor - Napoleon Bonaparte. The fascination with surveying land was really just a product of his desire to conquer the world. Napoleon Bonaparte founded a registry called the cadastre. This includes a registry of properties of a county, ownership details, locations so when much information about the land's value. Yes, Napoleon Bonaparte can be considered a land surveyor - and an extremely smart man.

The techniques useful for land surveying have also evolved over the centuries. In the past, people would use anything that may help them determine the length from one point to another. This means using chains with links and also ropes.  https://castlesurveys.co.uk/  to say, this didn't give accurate results however they didn't have the technology we've back then.

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