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Maps have 'north' at the top, but it could've been different

calamity said:
I noticed that while trying to determine if Australia was a continent or not. Officially, strictly scientifically speaking, Europe/Asia/Africa are one continent. Although Africa is definitely tearing away, rifting. So, soon (few million years from now) it will be an official continent. But, Europe is not even close.

Correction: Africa is still moving North. So, it will continue to crash into Europe and lift the Alps while is spins away from the middle East.

It's all so confusing.
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That will be so cool to see happen.
 
radcen said:
I once knew a lady that had to turn a road map so that it was facing the direction she was facing. Then, turning left was left and turning right was right. After she made the turn, she'd re-orient the road map accordingly.
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had no idea you know my daughter
 
MarshallB said:
Many old maps have no consistent point of orientation. The idea of a consistent orientation is itself relatively modern and is probably equally due to magnetic north and Polaris by those who had no other landmarks.
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Putting north at the top more likely has to do with the adoption of globes in the early Renaissance.

When you have a globe, if you put the axis horizontal, you're looking at the placenames either sideways all the time, or upside-down half the time. The only way to look at the placenames always-rightside-up is to put the axis of the globe vertical.

But if you put the axis vertical with south-up, the most useful part of the globe (to Europeans, anyway) is on the bottom where you can't see it easily.

So, you put the globe axis vertical with north up.

And then you draw your maps the same way so that they match.

Q.E.D.
 
Since nearly 90% of humanity lives in the northern hemisphere it also seems like this is the most useful construction for the map.
 
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