Overview “How old is actually the oldest map?” Even though Cartography as a discipline only developed in modern times (Sect. 1.2), people have been creating maps or map-like representations of their environment for thousands of years. They used the knowledge, acquisition and representation methods available to them at the time or those that corresponded to the zeitgeist of the time. Thus, maps are always subject to influences from worldview, knowledge about the Earth, geometry, technology, art, and much more. Due to these various influences, the history of Cartography is a very broad and exciting field. It is not possible to comprehensively and completely describe this topic in a few pages. In this chapter, therefore, only selected aspects are dealt with, roughly sorted by historical epochs and mainly from a European perspective, which consider important or typical developments. An attempt is also made to answer the initial question about the oldest map. For a detailed examination of the history of Cartography, reference is made to the further literature mentioned below. Here you can also find historical considerations that deal with the lives of cartographers as well as the development of institutions, map collections or literature. If you are, in particular, interested beyond the European perspective, please refer to Volume Two of the work “The History of Cartography” (Harley JB, Woodward D (Eds) (2020) The History of Cartography. https://press.uchicago.edu/books/HOC/index.html Last access: 01.11.2024; out of print, but available online).