Why is North at the Top of the Map?
 

Why is north at the top of the map and south at the bottom? Is there some reason that North America, Europe, and Asia are considered being on the "top" of the globe and South America, Australia, and Antarctica are on the "bottom" of the globe? Can anyone share some insight on how this all developed? Perhaps the south pole is really the "top" of the planet....

in the end it makes no differance

most likely, the cartographers originally were from Northern Hemisphere locations. :confused:

Or the majority of "us" consider "the south" inferior!!!:p :D ;)

'Cuz if south was at the top, everything would be upside down.

The Greeks and Romans put East on top of their maps to honor the rising sun. It wasn't until the ?13th? Century when most travel was towards the north. Armies, traders, and others just used it for convience and it just stuck that way.

Oddly enough, since North is up, the world spins counterclockwise. You would think that the people that decided North was up would have designed a clock that rotates the same direction as the earth.

You're perfectly welcome to turn your globe with "south" pointing "up" if you like. The world's a spheroid in a place with no up or down, just relative directions: it doesn't matter. I guess you could say that it's a convention, but it's arbitrary.

You can get left-handed clocks, too. :) It's a strange world.

My wife's family is from the Maritimes, what she calls "down" east.
Usually I go up north, down south and out west/east. When I ask her why it's "down" east she says it's because of a feeling.
I don't feel down when I go see the folks and it's even more weird that we have to drive north, then east to get there.
So shouldn't it be "up" east in any event?

Who's with me here?

Peetster sez:
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Oddly enough, since North is up, the world spins counterclockwise. You would think that the people that decided North was up would have designed a clock that rotates the same direction as the earth.
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but if you lay on your back with your head facing north, the sun appears to be circling clockwise.

Its Up north, Down south, Back east and Out west. At least in my part of the united states. The Earth needs 4 axis' Then we wouldn't have the problem of ending up in the same location if we travel far enough east or west. Could you imagine how screwed up a compass would be if there were 4 magnetic poles?

its cause anything else is just wrong and dumb. like cybermike said the greeks and romans tried doing it different and look what happened to them. their empires fell apart, their gods ceased to exist, and they became a pathetic shadow of their former glory.

Since the poles switch all teh time soon enough south might be at the top.

Ohhh, thems fightin' words!

I guess it's cause the South wasn't found until relatively late in the game, and the English/Portuguese/French considered Africa to be 'below' European standard... hence South

gravity sucks man.