This paper will examine how European colonial surveys relied upon existing surveying traditions in the Middle East, yet by transforming it into a tool of control and colonization. Surveying had a long history in the Ottoman Empire, which used it for social and political practices ranging from distribution of shares to taxation. Most mathematical practitioners like surveyors were architects or scholars who were trained on site in collaboration with them. However, there happened a shift in the surveying practices in line with demands to have well defined borders during the Ottoman diplomatic exchanges with European countries such as Austrian-Hungarian empire. On the other hand, in Egypt, French colonialists introduced new surveying methods for efficiency. Yet, despite the emphasis on the transfer of European knowledge, the impact of existing surveying traditions and the ways in which diverse surveying methods merged, which enabled the colonization of lands, have been rarely studied. Today, recent scholarship shows that the science of surveying, used in a variety of areas such as architecture and building infrastructure like irrigation canals, developed into a complex system under state control in the Ottoman Empire between the 16th and 18th centuries (Kale 2019, 2020). What was the impact of these enduring traditions on colonial surveys? How did European surveyors manage to survey vast areas in foreign lands, which is impossible to consider without taking into consideration the local surveyors’ and workers’ efforts? I will explore such interactions based on a few case studies on border making, building waterways, and the division of lands.