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

Exercises for schools

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

Why do borders exist? Why do so many Finns head for the countryside during their holidays? Where do all the roads lead to? How are all these things related to land? And above all, what does it matter?

This page will help you consider the importance of land. The exercises are based on the Scale of Land online exhibition and the World Heritage pages, and they will help you consider the past and present importance of land in Finland. How does it affect your life?

Module 1: The Struve Geodetic Arc and arc measurement.

World Heritage page and the Scale of Land online exhibition will help you find answers to the question. You can also use the Internet search engines where necessary. This set of exercises was prepared by Pekka Tätilä, Chief Engineer at the National Land Survey.

  1. What was Isaac Newton's theory concerning the shape of the Earth in the 17th century?
    Answer: The Earth is not quite round, but slightly flattened at the poles..
  2. In order to investigate Newton's theory, the French Academy sent exhibitions to the Torne river valley and to Peru (the area in question is now part of Ecuador) in the 18th century. Why were the destinations so far from each other?
    Answer: One of the exhibitions was sent to the equator and the other to the north, as close to the North Pole as possible. A comparison of the measurements allowed the explorers to deduce that the Earth was indeed slightly flattened: viewed from the centre of the Earth, the arc corresponding to an angle is longer close to the pole than a corresponding arc at the equator.
  3. More detailed information about the shape of the Earth was discovered only when measurements were taken for the Struve Geodetic Arc in the 19th century. Why was this?
    Answer: The accuracy of measuring instruments in particular had improved, and advances were continuously made in other areas of science and technology as well.
  4. What is the circumference of the Earth? Which well-known unit of measurement was originally defined based on the circumference? How was it defined?
    Answer: 40000 km. One metre corresponds to 1/40000000 of the Earth's circumference.
  5. The Struve Geodetic Arc is one of the UNESCO World Heritage sites. At the time when measurements for the Arc were made (1816–1855), the modes of transport and opportunities for travel were very different from what they are today. Consider the means of travel which the members of the expeditions may have used .
    Answer topics: On foot, skiing, horse ride, reindeer sledge, boat, carriage, toboggan, ahkio sledge, skis…
  6. How long is the Struve Geodetic Arc?
    Answer: 2,820 km.
  7. The Struve Geodetic Arc was measured by triangulation. Why does triangulation require a baseline in addition to the angle measurements?
    Answer: According to the laws of trigonometry, you need to know at length of at least one of the triangle's sides and two other measurements for the triangle before you can determine the size of the triangle. The baseline determines the scale. If only the angle measurements are known, the triangle can be of any size at all.
  8. How long would it take to travel on foot or by car (by the shortest route) from one end of the Struve Geodetic Arc to the other?
    Answer: On foot: Assuming a moderate pace of 3 km/h, it would take 940 hours. Converted into working days of 8 hours, for example, this would make 108 days. By car: Assuming an average speed of 70 km/h, it would take 40 hours. Converted into working days of 8 hours, for example, this would make 5 days.
  9. The map of Europe has changed several time over the centuries. Originally the Struve Geodetic Arc went through the territories of Russia and Sweden, but now it runs through ten states. When did the other eight countries become independent?
    Answer: Norway 1905, Finland 1917, Estonia 1991, Latvia 1991, Lithuania 1990, Belarus 1991, The Republic of Moldova 1991, Ukraine 1991

Display module 1 answers

Module 2: Study the use of maps and how to search geographical information

You can do this with the help of the online Citizen’s MapSite service at www.karttapaikka.fi. These exercises were prepared by Susanna Sanzes, a geography teacher.