a penguin of very little brain
siterlas: “It came as a surprise to me after over 20 years of seeing “normal” world maps to come across an upside down one. The most surprising thing was that I found it surprising. It is completely artificial that we have North at the top of a map. The convention came a few centuries ago when Northern hemisphere, European navigators started using the North star and the magnetic compass. Before that, the top of the map was to the East which is where the word orientation comes from.” - the upside-down map page

siterlas:

“It came as a surprise to me after over 20 years of seeing “normal” world maps to come across an upside down one. The most surprising thing was that I found it surprising. It is completely artificial that we have North at the top of a map.

The convention came a few centuries ago when Northern hemisphere, European navigators started using the North star and the magnetic compass. Before that, the top of the map was to the East which is where the word orientation comes from.”

- the upside-down map page

Reblogged 1 month ago from siterlas (Originally from libey)
100 notes
Tagged: maps, history, .
Source: libey
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    “It came as a surprise to me after over 20 years of seeing “normal” world maps to come across an upside down one. The...
  24. quoms reblogged this from frankifyed and added:
    awesome my only issue with this is that it still uses the mercator projection would people just stop that
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