This question popped up in my head while watching LOTR, in wich a tree says: going south always feels like going down.
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1$\begingroup$ South-up map orientation (found while google.com/search?q=maps+south+facing+up) $\endgroup$– Jan DoggenCommented May 7, 2016 at 19:17
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1$\begingroup$ Just a conjecture here. Part of it is how we think of the earth rotating. A counter clockwise rotation is considered positive (see right hand rule). Because the Northern hemisphere rotates counterclockwise around the North Pole and the Southern Hemisphere rotates clockwise around the South Pole, it would make sense for the North Pole to be considered as "up" on a map. $\endgroup$– BarocliniCplusplusCommented May 8, 2016 at 1:44
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$\begingroup$ That´s an interesting conjecture! But I don´t think that´s the reason because the right and left hand rule weren´t there yet in early times. $\endgroup$– Deschele SchilderCommented May 8, 2016 at 11:49
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$\begingroup$ It's interesting that you mention LOTR because I was just reading The Silamrilion, Chapter 11 "Of the Sun and the Moon and the Hiding of Valinor", wherein is written "... and set them to voyage [...] from the West into the East..." This got me thinking, does the solar system have an orientation. All planets orbit the sun "clockwise" when viewed from "above". Is this just a convention? Now Venus and Uranus rotate in the opposite direction to the other planets, so the sun would travel as described above. As for the moon, it also orbits the Earth clockwise. Thus, Middle-Earth could be an ancient $\endgroup$– Stuart SteedmanCommented Sep 26, 2022 at 22:27
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1$\begingroup$ because LOTR was written by a European. $\endgroup$– JohnCommented Sep 29, 2022 at 23:02
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2 Answers
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Most of our geographic and astronomic terms were developed in pre-history in the northern hemisphere. Even early astronomers noticed that Polaris, the north star, was 'up' in the night sky, so north as 'up' simply became the convention.
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$\begingroup$ Can it be it has to do with the first (the western world) and the third world? $\endgroup$ Commented May 7, 2016 at 23:55
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2$\begingroup$ North was "up" way before there was a "Western" and a "Third" world. This is irrelevant. I've seen people claim that the north-up thing is some kind of white supremacist Eurocentric perspective. It's not. It's just the way it has always been. $\endgroup$– GimelistCommented May 8, 2016 at 11:49
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$\begingroup$ But why has it always been like that? I´m sure that if the place where western thought developed were in the southern hemisphere, we now would have upside-down maps. It seems Natural to me to put the place where the (western kind) maps are made (in the northern hemisphere) on top of the map. $\endgroup$ Commented May 8, 2016 at 12:56
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$\begingroup$ Maps have been oriented that way since at least ancient Greek times, long before concepts such as "Western" world, first vs third world, or even the fact that the Earth is round were around. Of course map makers put themselves into the middle, simply because that's the part of the world they knew. But that's about it. $\endgroup$ Commented Jul 8, 2016 at 2:43
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There is no good reason. It's simply a convention that someone started a long time ago and that stuck. Like the question whether an hour is divided into 60 minutes and a minute into 60 seconds.
If you go to Australia, you will find plenty of maps for tourists that show Australia at the top and Europe at the bottom.
answered May 7, 2016 at 1:39
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5$\begingroup$ I live in Australia, and I can assure you that almost all maps are oriented with north pointing up. The postcards showing south as up is just a gimmick for parting gullible tourists from their money! $\endgroup$ Commented May 7, 2016 at 18:19
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$\begingroup$ But why making that convention? I suppose there wasn´t a dice thrown. $\endgroup$ Commented May 8, 2016 at 12:41
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$\begingroup$ You might also mention the even earlier T-O maps which are oriented with East going up as an earlier convention that apparently did not stick. $\endgroup$ Commented May 10, 2021 at 15:04