Surveying is believed to be the third oldest profession in the world. To a surveyors, the link chain symbolizes a rugged era, in terms of evolution of surveying technology and equipments. The chain was a precision part of a surveyor's equipment for years. Then the Renaissance in education and scientific knowledge provided the necessary intellectual foundation for the development of modern surveying.

With the advent of the electronic distance meter, GPS, GIS, and computer-controlled Land Surveying, the profession of surveyors has turned from a labor-intensive type into a more sedate one.

A brief chronology of surveying instruments provided here, traces the history of surveying:
Around 1400 B.C., the Egyptians first used the predecessors of modern surveying instruments to accurately divide land into plots for the purpose of taxation and to engineer many feats, from canals to pyramids. An ancient Egyptian survey crew used measuring ropes, plumb bobs, sighting instruments, and leveling instruments. The ancient Egyptian measuring rope was stretched taut between stakes and then rubbed with a mixture of beeswax and resin. Some of the ropes depicted in hieroglyph were graduated by knots tied at intervals.