This paper aims at taking the reader on a guided tour of the field of identification of continuous-time systems. It presents a birds eye view of the continuous-time related aspects of the greater field of system identification. Continuous-time based contributions to system identification began in the nineteen-fifties but were overshadowed by a ‘go completely digital’ spirit which was spurred by parallel developments in digital computers during the following two decades. The nineteen seventies have witnessed a resurgence of continuous-time spirit and the field of continuous-time system identification has now matured to merit a review as is intended here. This paper is divided into three parts. An overview of the basic techniques of identification of continuous-time systems in a unified framework is presented in Part A. Parts B and C outline some recent developments in the identification of linear systems and nonlinear systems, respectively.