[4] Originally a training exercise in land navigation for military officers, orienteering has developed many variations.

"orientation") was first used in 1886 at the Swedish Military Academy Karlberg and meant the crossing of unknown land with the aid of a map and a compass.

By 1934, over a quarter million Swedes were participants, and orienteering had spread to Finland, Switzerland, the Soviet Union, and Hungary.

Following World War II, orienteering spread throughout Europe and to Asia, North America and Oceania.

Representatives from 12 countries (Austria, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Finland, East and West Germany, Hungary, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Yugoslavia) participated.

In its Scandinavian origins, this typically meant in the forest, but orienteering in open fell, heathland, moorland and other mixed terrain is also common.

Because the method of travel determines the needed equipment and tactics, each sport requires specific rules for competition and guidelines for orienteering event logistics and course design.

[15] It is based in Sweden[16] and it claims on its website to aim to "spread the sport of orienteering, to promote its development and to create and maintain an attractive world event programme.

The competition, or race, is intended to test the navigational skill, concentration, and running ability of the competitors.

Map symbols are standardized by the IOF,[25] and designed to be readable by any competitor regardless of background or native tongue.

Orienteering events offer a range of courses, of varying physical and technical difficulty, to meet the needs of competitors.

[33] Each competitor is required to carry an electronic or paper control card, and to present it at the Start and hand it in at the Finish.

In Australia, under the 2021 rules, 2.1.21, the choice of clothing is also left up to the competitor, and full leg cover is not required.

Similarly in New Zealand, there are no rules in force limiting orienteers to running only in full leg cover.

The middle distance is a shorter cross-country race than the classic (or long), with a winning time in the region of 30 minutes and with an emphasis more on fine navigation than route-choice.

The key principle is that every team must run every leg (between each pair of two controls), but not necessarily in the same order.

In relay (non-orienteering) usage, leg refers to the part of a race run by a single team member.

The large-scale, endurance-style version of a Score-O is known as a rogaine, competed by teams in events lasting (often) 24 hours.

The term ROGAINE is often said to stand for Rugged Outdoor Group Activity Involving Navigation and Endurance; this is essentially a backronym, as the name actually originates from the names of Rod, Gail and Neil Phillips, who were among Australian Rogaining's first participants.

[41] Very short races, with winning times in the region of 12–15 minutes, often held in city parks and other more urban settings.

Control sites can include benches, litterbins, sculptures, and other objects common to urban parks.

Reflective markers often are used on control point flags, which shifts the tactics from precision navigation to searching.

[45] Full length (24-hour) rogaines and many adventure races run through the night, without a light period, and competitors may choose not to rest.

[47] Efforts to develop a format suitable for Olympic competitions have focused on park orienteering, micro-orienteering, and short-distance relays.

Sprint Orienteering on foot as a format of the sport is most likely to be included in Olympic Games, as this discipline is becoming more and more popular worldwide and can have a significant spectator interest.

[50] In its formal recommendation that ski orienteering not be included in those games, the Olympic Programme Commission focused on a lack of participation in the sport outside Nordic countries, "the challenges for broadcasters and spectators to easily follow the competition", and the costs associated with new technology and a new results system.

[54] As of 2019[update], when applying the Olympic-style gold first rankings method to medals won at the World Orienteering Championships, Europe has been dominant, with Sweden's 171 medals won marking them as the most successful world championships nation.

A night relay with open entry held in different locations in Sweden, Tiomila is considered equal to Jukola as the most prestigious event in club orienteering.

Carto semiotics helps make sense of symbols used in different types of maps such as globes, relief models, and animations.

Carto semiotics also includes the study of map keys, legends, and units of measurement between destinations.