Dear MEL
Topic Readers,
Why maps
have north at the top?
Have you
seen an upside-down map, south being the top and north being the bottom? Or, a
90-degree-turned map, east or west being the top?
If you view
the earth from space, any place could be the top and the bottom as there is no
up or down in space. So why the north is always up in almost all the maps? Is there
any historical or astrophysical reason?
In fact,
if you had lived in the northern hemisphere in early days of human history, you
most likely would have headed south, the warmer direction to seek for food and
place to live in. If an absolute ruler lived in north, he would be looking down
south, so the top of the map would be north.
But what
about the opposite way? If you had lived in the southern hemisphere or an
emperor had lived in the south of his realm, what the map would have been like?
Enjoy
reading and thinking from which direction you’d like to see your own planet.
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