The history of geography has two main parts: the history of exploration and mapmaking and the development of the academic discipline. The emergence of geography: exploration and mapping world according to Herodotus Map of the world, based on the description given by Herodotus (5th century bce).

History and geography were once commonly regarded as sibling disciplines if not as two aspects of a larger whole. By this way of thinking, historical processes can only be understood as they literally take place, unfolding across particular landscapes and influenced by the obdurate realities of the physical world.