North Is Up? From: The Washington Post | Date: June 9, 1999| Author: | Copyright 1999 The Washington Post. This material is published under license from the Washington Post.  All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post.Copyright information

You use maps all the time. And on the highway map in your car, the topographic map in your backpack and the world map on your wall, north is almost always at the top.

Why? It is, after all, a completely arbitrary choice. There is no "up" or "down" in space. And the only factor that determines the "top" of a map is the way the type is placed. So how did we get stuck with the north-up orientation? The answer can be found in a brief tour through the history of maps.

Cartography, the science of map making, was established through the efforts of early scholars such as Eratosthenes, head of the ...

Related newspaper, magazine, and trade journal articles from HighBeam Research

(Including press releases, facts, information, and biographies)

	PATRIOTS ON TOP OF WORLD ; Caption only.
	On top of the world ; ((PHOTO CAPTION))
	TOP OF THE WORLD ; Caption text only
	ON TOP OF THE WORLD! ; ((PHOTO CAPTION))
	The World's Top 50 Airports. ; [TABLE HAS BEEN CLIPPED]
	Austrian miss on top of the world ; ((PHOTO CAPTION))
	[ Caption only: Top of the world ] ; Caption text only.
	Top of the world.(News) ; Palmair of Bournemouth, with just one plane, was the only airline in the world to score 100 per cent success for customer satisfaction in a Holiday Which? mag survey.
	Top - "The World's Strongest Man" Mark [Derived headline; Caption text only] ; Caption text only
	On top of the world.(National) ; On top of the world: Television presenter and actress Denise van Outen at London's Top Shop clothing store yesterday where she modelled her own collection of bikinis.

For more facts and information, see all results