The principles of land surveying date back almost as far as the thought of land ownership. Since ancient man determined that certain parcel would participate in one group, and the other piece to another group, there was a need to mediate between land disputes. That's where land surveying came in, although today surveys may also be used for many other purposes.
Since that time, every major civilization in the annals of the planet has used some form of land surveying, although they will have certainly become more sophisticated through the years both with changing laws and improved technologies. Today, GPS and other technologies allow for a more exact survey than was possible a few short decades ago. As you can imagine, ancient maps and land surveys were even less accurate.
Among the first types of a land survey using mathematical means was in ancient Egypt. The Great Pyramid, built around 2700 BC at Giza, demonstrates Egyptians' understanding of surveying techniques. Ancient Egyptians also redrew boundary lines using basic geometry following the Nile River flooded the plains. An Egyptian land register existed as soon as 3000 BC, or five thousand years ago, to record the owners of varied pieces of land and their locations. These early surveying efforts by the Egyptians were years before other civilizations, as was true in many the areas of Egyptian technology aswell. Sunlight Surveyors New Cross London were based on geometry in addition to simple declarations they believed these boundaries to be correct.
In the Roman Empire., the Romans actually established 'land surveyor' being an official position. These were called agrimensores. Texts describing their actions date back to the initial century AD. Thorough and precise, they were known for creating impeccably straight lines and right angles using simple tools. After measuring these lines, they might dig a shallow ditch to represent the lines. Amazingly, some of these ditches still exist for this day.
In eleventh century England, William the Conqueror wrote his now-famous Domesday Book. This book, covering most of England, meticulously covered the names of most land owners, the product quality and amount of this land, and information on individuals and resources in each area. Even though amount of information within this book was quite impressive, this is not just a technical survey, and the maps were not attracted to scale and weren't very accurate.
Napoleon Bonaparte was the first to mandate a cadastre, in 1808. At times, Napoleon even thought that the cadastre will be his greatest contribution to civil law. The cadastre is really a thorough register of the property in a given county. The information it includes includes ownership details, location (as precisely measured as possible given then-current technology), so when much information about the value and using the land as was available. This cadastre included scale maps at both 1:2500 and 1:1250. Cadastre use spread quickly, and indeed it was the foundation of today's cadastral surveys. However, it was difficult to produce a cadastre in rural areas or those where land was in dispute.
Today's surveys are much more accurate than those done in decades or centuries past thanks to sophisticated means for measuring and recording boundaries and land features. There are many more applications of land surveys than recording land ownership