Historical data

Around the turn of the 20th century, the foundation was laid for the surveying in Iceland on which much of the country’s mapping has been based ever since. The Danish Ministry of War issued an order to the Survey Department of the General Staff to begin new surveying and mapping of Iceland. This extensive project lasted for 27 summers from 1900 to 1940, including all preparation work. In 1928, the Danish Geodetic Institute was founded, taking over the Iceland surveys from the General Staff.

At the end of World War II, based on these surveys, the Danes had published Atlas maps at a scale of 1:100,000, a total of 87 sheets covering the entire country. The Atlas mapping involved 70 surveyors and cartographers and about 300 assistants, both Icelandic and Danish. These maps, among others, can be viewed in the historical data map viewer and downloaded from the Natural Science Institute of Iceland map collection.

The Danish surveyors also produced plans of Icelandic farms, urban areas, and villages, which can be viewed in the map viewer. These plans were made between 1902 and 1920.

The map viewer also includes a collection of photographs taken by the Danish surveyors at the beginning of the last century, mostly from 1900 to 1910. The photographs were donated by the Danish Geodetic Institute to the National Land Survey of Iceland in the spring of 1985. The photographs were on glass plates and photo cards, most being 3D/stereo images, and about 70 images were taken in duplicate or triplicate, bringing the total to 594 images.