Why Is North Up on Maps? Upside Down Maps Break Conventional Perspective

Why Is North Up on Maps?

We see it everyday, even on google maps: North is at the top, up, above on most 2-dimensional depictions of the world. But why is north up on maps so often that countries become unrecognizable when show 'upside down'?

Maps Throughout History

Throughout history, the orientation of maps has actually changed more than you might have assumed. In medieval Europe during the crusades, Jerusalem was positioned at the top of the map, putting East at the top. This alignment to where the sun rose helped give us the word ‘orient’.

Arabic maps placed south at the top. Possibly because when one wakes up to face the sun, south is on the right (right having a positive connotation).

In the west, the tradition of orienting maps to the north began with the 5th century Alexandrian geographer Claudius Ptolemy. Ptolemy’s work, the Geographica, is considered the first known geography. Ptolemy was familiar with Polaris, the North Star, and in order to encapsulate his known world and celestial space, he chose to make north up on maps.

North-South Up-Down Concept Affects Perceptions

Similarly, as explorers continued on the quest to map the world in later centuries it was easier to start a map at the top, with the area explorers were most familiar with: the Northern hemisphere. Writing location names and notes in this orientation discouraged the turning or rotation of maps so north remained up on maps.

The orientation of maps is reflective of and has an effect on our perception of the world. We often think of space in the form of ‘above’ and ‘below’ according to the North is Up perspective on most modern maps. That city is ‘below the river’. The United States is ‘above Mexico’ and ‘below Canada’. Australia is known as the ‘land down under’. Although literally ground is below and sky is above nearly any given location, because maps have taught us that north is up and south is down, we talk about places in this way.

View The World From a Different Perspective on Upside Down Maps

Upside down maps force us to view the world differently. When we see south at the top of the map and north at the bottom, we may notice new things about the world. For instance, on an upside down map it is easier to notice:

• most of the land mass of the world is concentrated in the northern hemispheres
• South America is more south-east than directly south of North America
• Europe appears less significant ‘below’ the large continent Africa

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Australia Reaches New Levels of Heat: Take a Look at This Temperature Map

Australia is so hot they had to add new colors to their heat map.  That’s not the punch line of a joke; it’s a fact.  mapsales.com takes a look at the devastating heat wave that’s searing the land down under. 

Australia is a unique place.  It is home to some of the most beautiful, bizarre, and fantastic sights in the world.  But Australia has made headlines for another reason recently.  Namely, its heat. 

Australia is hot.  Regions in New South Wales, Tasmania, Victoria, and Queensland are expected to reach temperatures over 104 degrees Fahrenheit, while other parts of the country have already surpassed 122 degrees!  The heat wave, which scientists describe as a giant “dome of heat,” is moving northward through Australia leaving wildfires and broken electronics in its path. 

The Australian Bureau of Meteorology had to add new colors to its heat map to register the record breaking temperatures in the country’s southern region.  Because of the widespread catastrophic wildfires, temperatures registered 129.2 degrees in parts of New South Wales.  More than 100 homes have been destroyed and, while no deaths have been reported, officials are searching the island state of Tasmania for a number of missing people. 

Temperatures are cooling, but it was still close to 95 degrees in Sydney earlier this week (that’s 95 degrees at midnight).  Hopefully the heat dome will quickly move away from Australia in time for the Australian Open Tennis Championship. 

Want to learn more about Australia? Try a map!  mapsales.com carries over 200,000 wall maps…delivered as fast as next day! 

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