Place of Memory

Welcome to the National Land Survey of Finland’s history website, www.mapscroll.fi. This site will take you through five centuries of land survey in Finland, describing their impact on the land and its inhabitants. The www.mapscroll.fi website is the memory of land survey.

You can access the Archive Centre and the Land Surveying Museum from these pages. Whether you are a traveller, scientist, student or land survey professional, or just interested in the subject, www.mapscroll.fi is your window to the multi-faceted world of land survey.

The Measure of Land online exhibition

What is the measure of land? The Earth's circumference is 40 000 kilometres and its mass is 5.9737×1024 kg. But how can we measure land without using such units of measurement? What is the meaning of land? Why is land important? What is the cultural measure of land?

Image bank

Are you looking for illustrations? The NLS image bank contains images shown on the Mapscroll.fi website.

Measure of Land

Maanmitta Etu 11

The Measure of Land is an online exhibition on the history of land survey which takes you on a journey through the multifaceted world of land survey. It illustrates the role land survey has played in Finnish society and strives to answer the question: what is the measure of land?

Visit the image bank on this page to view the images shown on the Mapscroll.fi website, including historical photos and maps.

World Heritage

The fascinating Struve Geodetic Arc – a tour de force in land surveying before the satellite era – is the sixth Finnish site accepted to the UNESCO World Heritage List. What makes the Struve Geodetic Arc particularly interesting as a World Heritage site is that it is not actually visible. The significance of the Arc lies in the effort put into its creation.

This page will tell you how the Struve Geodetic Arc came to be created. You can also follow its route, which nowadays runs through ten states. Six of the station points selected for protection are located in Finland.

Exercises for schools

What is land? Is it just the foundation on which everything else is built?

Tips for teachers

Tips for teaching and an invitation to contribute to the development of the material

Tips for teachers

Tips for teaching and an invitation to contribute to the development of the material

The Land Surveying Museum

The Land Surveying Museum in Jyväskylä makes an excellent destination for an unforgettable excursion, particularly for the older schoolchildren. The past and present events of land survey make the mathematics, geography or history lessons come alive.

For more information concerning visits, please contact Amanuensis Niko Saatsi.

Contact details:
Maanmittausmuseo
Land Surveying Museum
40700 Jyväskylä

Customer service and enquiries, tel. +358 20 690 676
Amanuensis Niko Saatsi, tel. +358 20 541 6935.

Online material

The Karttäkäärö.fi website provides access to the subject at every school. The Scale of the Land and the World Heritage sections demonstrate the importance of land survey from a wide social perspective. Fascinating details enliven the general overviews.

The Importance of Land page contains exercises that may be used in the teaching of a range of subjects. They provide an introduction to the use of maps, for instance, and can be used to illustrate a more general discussion about Finland and society.

Help us develop the learning material

The National Land Survey wishes to offer online material that meets the needs of schools. The exercises found on the Karttäkäärö.fi website were designed in cooperation with the Maankäyttö journal and schools included in the UNESCO Associated Schools Network. The goal is to add new exercises to the set regularly.

Do you have ideas or practical tips that could help us develop the online material and further enhance its relevance for teaching? We will be happy to receive ideas for new exercises. Please contact us via the feedback page.

The architects of the future

Land survey professionals will be in high demand in the future. The sector offers a range of challenging duties and excellent career prospects. More information on how to start your career in land survey is available from the following websites: