This was at least true until August 20th, 1909 [source]

*everybody dies

At first, people used itinirary (to go to Rome, first go to PlaceX, then PlaceY, etc)

Maps of the time, when they existed, where merely illustrations, with fictionnal places sprinkled in.

Then some attempts mesured distances between places by counting step, and overall direction. This is why most maps before 1000ce are really strange looking, but you can guess what they represent using the name of places.

With the invention of things like the astrolab, people where able to mesure both distances and more precise direction, giving birth to triangulation, which was used until the invention of GPS