Historical geography is not a branch of physical geography or human geography, rather, it is the geography of the past with its natural and human aspects, meaning that it is not limited in its study to the natural conditions of the past only, but is concerned with the study of human activity as well.

Historical geography is the branch of geography that studies the ways in which geographic phenomena have changed over time. It is a synthesizing discipline which shares both topical and methodological similarities with history, anthropology, ecology, geology, environmental studies, literary studies, and other fields. Historical geography is often a major component of school and university curricula in geography and social studies. Current research in historical geography is being performed by scholars in more than forty countries.

Historical geography is concerned with linguistics. Through linguistic analysis, the student of historical geography is able to identify humans in different historical periods, as language is a means of preserving civilization and transmitting it from one generation to another. There is no doubt that there is a close relationship between historical geography and history.