- North - Up
- West - Left
- East - Right
- South West - Downy left.
How did we end up thinking like this?
Welcome to Map Men.
We're the men
and here's the map.
♫ Map Men, Map Men
♫ Map Map Map Men, Men.
Hello.
All maps need a top and a bottom.
Although it's theoretically possible to have a map where words are written in multiple directions
maps that tried this fell out of favour very quickly because they were horrible to use.
Luckily almost all maps today orientate the world the exact same way
with north at the top.
Examples include OS Maps, Google Maps,
and this map of all the motorways in Rutland.
North is up is such an ingrained idea that not even J.R.R Tolkien,
creator of Hobbits and Balrogs could imagine an alternative orientation for Middle Earth.
So how did it end up being North and has it always been this way?
We're about to tell you and no.
It turns out the majority of ancient cultures had a 90 degree different view of the world
from the one we have today.
On their maps, the direction most often facing top was East.
The reason for this is down to our hot friend, the sun.
The sun rose in the east
and because people liked the sun and were happy when it appeared,
east became the most important direction.
Oh there it is, that's a relief.
Incidentally orientated means east at the top, hence Orient.
Aaah.
Most European maps had east at the top until well into the 15th century.
South was second most important because of all the sunshine
then west where the sun set
with north actually considered the least significant direction
because it was the darkest and generally associated with evil.
To give you an idea of just how north-hating early Christians were,
graves facing northwards were reserved only for excommunicants and the unbaptised.
Er, excuse me.
I did request to be buried next to my dead wife.
In other parts of the world we get clues that East was on top
even though no map survived to prove it.
In India the Sanskrit word "dakshina"
means both "South" as well as "to the right"
And if South was to the right then East must have been at the top.
And West must have been on the bottom.
Yes. - and North must have...
I think we get it.
But the most famous early civilisation saw the world another yet 90 degrees differently.
The ancient Egyptians put South at the top of their maps
for the simple reason that because the Nile flowed downhill
its source must surely be at the top.
Makes sense.
It also explains why it's called Lower Egypt despite being further north.
South at the top soon became an Arab map-making calling card
as shown on the famous world map made by Muslim scholar Al Idrissi
for King Roger II of Sicily, called "Tabula Rogeriana".
Roger's map
which featured in the seminal book, Kitab Rujar
Roger's book.
So, with all this eastness and southness throughout history
how did we end up with the ever unpopular North literally on top of the world?
the change in direction occurred at the Age of Exploration.
In the 1400s, wealthy European nations literally started to push the boat out
in search of exciting things to steal like gold and potatoes.
In order to do this successfully, navigation needed to get better
and that meant the very frequent use of the compass.
By harnessing the Earth's natural magnetic field,
compasses were a superbly useful way of letting sailors know where they were going.
The original inventors of the compass, the Chinese
decided that this thing pointed south
which In fairness, half of it did.
That explains why the Chinese word for compass was
"zhǐ nán zhēn"
which translates to "pointing south needle".
But Western explorers saw things differently.
In Europe there was already a long tradition of navigating by the North Star
giving European navigators an astrological Northern bias.
So when they got their hands on the Chinese pointing technology
they used it to do what they'd always done and find North first.
If you've ever used a compass on a year 5 geography trip
where you got lost in the woods and wet yourself in front of Mr Dugdale
you'll understand how North being at the top of your map
makes it easier to turn and face where your compass is pointing.
This navigational edge allowed Europeans to spread themselves and their ideas
including "North is up" all over the world
and after centuries of standardisation "North is up" became stuck
in the maps and the minds of people all over the planet.
So now North is literally always up all the time
on every map ever with no exceptions.
Except these ones coming after the break.
Hello and welcome to Good Grief.
Now Cyril, is it true you haven't seen your father in 66 years?
Yes it's true.
Well Cyril, good grief, he's here tonight!
Cyril?
Good grief!
Son!
Father, where have you been?
Well, son...
You know all those websites that offer a service but suspiciously don't charge anything for
it?
Yes Father.
You know they make their money by taking your data and selling it onto data brokers
leaving you at risk of data breaches and identity theft?
Yes Father.
Well that's where I've been son.
I finally contacted every single broker one at a time and asked them to delete my
data.
It took me 66 years, but I'm back, son.
And I'm ready to give you a right good fathering.
Oh Father I forgive you.
Come give me a right good fathering.
Good grief why didn't you just use Incogni?
Incogni?
You know, Incogni
the automated service that searches for data brokers
and contacts them on your behalf with a legal demand to delete your personal data from their
databases
keeping you regularly updated and keeping your identity safe online.
Simply sign up by clicking the link in the description below
and the first 100 people to use the code "MAPMEN" will get a 60% discount off Incogni.
How dare you ruin this tender moment with my son?
Well it's not my fault he didn't use Incogni, good grief.
Good grief, stop talking about Incogni!
It's my show.
Well he's my father.
No, you're my father, good grief.
You know, you could still have done some fathering at the weekends.
(They bicker)
Incogni.
It'll ruin the reunion with your son.
♫ Good grief...
Exceptions to North being at the top do sometimes appear on modern maps
in just a small handful of examples.
Some cities arranged in a grid form are frequently shown on maps
with North on the wonk to suit the folded paper it's on
and allow for better legibility.
Manhattan is a fantastic example of this
creating a false North in the minds of locals and tourists.
A similar effect can be found on maps of Melbourne, Mexico City and Milton Keynes.
The increasing prevalence of wayfinder or "You are here" maps in cities
is popularising this easy to navigate kind of map
where up is the direction you're facing and not necessarily North.
Which is a pity for those of us who were taught to always find North first
like this.
Also, sat navs.
Modern digital maps can be rotated
to face whichever way is most convenient or safe for the user
resulting in a generation of whippersnappers
who bizarrely are very familiar with their local area
but entirely unfamiliar with which way is north.
But all these exceptions only do a great job of proving the rule
as maps that are even slightly wonky just look disconcertingly unfamiliar and wrong.
Oh.
BUT!!!
Does it matter that North won the day?
After all something has to go at the top.
Why shouldn't it be North?
The thing is, it does matter.
It affects not just the way you view the map but the way you view the world.
First of all, top-to-bottom is how we read things and naturally take information in
whether it's a map, or an album cover ,or a supermarket shelf
your eyes start at the top and then scan down.
And this is well known and exploited by designers of all kinds.
Second and more importantly of all
psychologists have proven that we associate things that are higher up with positivity.
Hi.
top of the morning.
Are you feeling tip-top?
On top of the world.
Did you watch Top of the Pops?
I watched it on my laptop.
That one doesn't work.
Oh.
So if all maps have North as up
we accidentally give places in the north a sense of importance and goodness
while places in the South might be viewed with a form of second-bestness.
This applies not just to maps of the world
where Africa and South America are buried at the bottom of the page and your thoughts
but to maps of London
which, for a chippy South London dweller like me
immediately explains the unbearable snobbery of North London dwellers like Jay.
You don't have the Tube.
It's because of the rock type.
Thankfully the overwhelming prevalence of north at the top maps
has irritated some people enough to inspire them to create some different maps
that turn our worldview upside down.
In 1979, Australian Stuart MacArthur published MacArthur's Universal corrective map of the
world.
Simply by flipping the familiar map on its head
whilst keeping the letters the right way up
it placed Australia, usually tucked down under in the bottom corner,
proudly at the top.
Although, just because it was upside down
it was no excuse for drawing Europe's borders apparently from memory.
Reorientating the world to give an original perspective is often done as a political statement
such as in this series of maps of Africa by Swedish non-african Nikolaj Jesper Cyon.
His aim was to show the continent from a different perspective
such as this one that imagines borders if colonialism hadn't happened.
And for maximum mind mashing, he made all his maps upside down.
One of the most influential wrong way up representations of the world
came in 1972 in the form of not a map but a photo.
On the Apollo 17 mission, one of Gene Cernan Ronald Evans or Harrison Schmidt
took a stunning snap of the Earth viewed from space.
And when he finally got back in signal range, sent it back to his pals at Nasa for them
to share with the world.
Wow!
The now famous photo titled 'Blue Marble'
appeared to show planet Earth the "wrong way up"
with Antarctica on top.
But of course, this photo made us see the world as it actually was -
a tiny ball floating in space.
Suddenly the whole idea of a top and bottom began to unravel
and there was chaos in the streets.
Sadly, by far the most frequently distributed version of the Blue Marble photo
has been cropped and rotated with North boringly at the top -
demonstrating just how fixated on North's upness we all remain.
Let's face it, with no gravity, there's actually nothing to anchor us
in the infinite expanse of space.
anywhere can be up
And anywhere can be down.
It's a shame that we've got into the habit of always looking at the world the same way.
Looking at a so-called wrong way up map
can make you see things you've been trained all your life not to notice
and expand your mind.
Look at this map of Britain.
Until you looked at it upside down
did you notice quite how far Cornwall was from London?
or that Edinburgh was west of Manchester?
Wonky Maps can be a good way for city planners to spot areas that need attention
or missing transport links
and that's why it's important to question hard and fast rules like North always being
up
because when you look at the world from a different angle
you invite new perspectives.
You've been watching Map Men
and for now, North is up.
♫ Map Men, Map Men
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