It needn’t be a Eurocentric world
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.
Rotated Maps
Then a friend bought me an Australian map that was on sale in Japan. Not only does it have South at the top, but it is also “rotated” so that China, Indonesia and Australia are in the centre rather than Europe and West Africa.
Hard to believe that I’d not only been educated into one stereotype about maps, but even after learning that stereotype had failed to spot the other one.
I’m interested in Upsidedown Maps because they make me rethink the world. It’s important to remember that there are people all over it. Since hanging one on my wall I’ve learnt geography again. You can reevaluate the world from scratch, as if it was a brand new alien landscape.
Indonesia looks like by far the most interesting place from orbit.
More World Maps
The first three following map images are copyright ODT, reproduced with their permission. You can buy them from ODT.
McArthur’s Universal Corrective Map of the World has a fabulous history, made by an Australian who was tormented for coming from the bottom of the world”. It was the first modern south-up map, published in 1979. Read about it at ODT.
More revenge from Australians, with their What’s Up? South! map. This has a Van der Grinten compromise projection. Read about it at ODT, and make sure you read the picture of the first panel at the bottom left of the map.
The Hobo-Dyer map is an equal area projection. One side of it has north on the top, the other has south. Read a full description at ODT.
The Wizard of New Zealand made this crazy imperial British upsidedown map. “The New World Map is guaranteed to stir up the grey matter of individuals who have merely been going through the motions of thinking for years.” The national wizard (officially recognised by the government) has been a figure of kiwi fun since at least the 1970s, ranting in a Christchurch square every lunchtime and blessing new buildings. On census day he, as a living work of art, obviously couldn’t take part. Instead he went out to sea on a fishing boat to beyond the 10 mile territorial limit. Wikipedia has more about who the wizard is. A friend gave me my copy of this map, which I’ve badly photographed below. On the back it has a detailed description of an inside-out cosmology.
Dieppe was a hive of cartographic activity in the mid 16th century. Nicolas Desliens made a 1566 upsidedown map, which can be found at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. Philip Print in London sell an interesting world map by Pierre Desceliers, 1550. It is designed to be placed on a table and read from both sides. Half of the map is inverted, and the other half is the right way round.
Ralph, a Yorkshire artist, has made Antipocentric, an underground-style upsidedown map of human cities. More on Ralph’s website.
Next time you see a globe, be subversive and turn it upside down as well. Email me if you have or know of any globes which are printed and designed to be viewed upsidedown. You might even make a New Yorker penguin happy.
Buying Such a Map
My rotated and upsidedown map is from:
Universal Press Pty Ltd.
Australia,
1 Waterloo Road,
Macquarie Park,
NSW 2113.
Telephone: 61 2 857 3700
Facsimile: 81 2 888 9850.
New Zealand,
Level 1,
42 Olive Road,
Penrose 1135 Auckland.
Telephone: 64 9 526 0241
Facsimile: 64 9 526 0249
The Map Store and other places claim to sell the map pictured at the top of this page, although it is out of print.
The Globe Corner Bookstore has a World Down Under map for sale.
Hema Maps have an upsidedown world map calendar.
Australia Fare sell an inverted map.
You can search for all manner of maps at Map Link.
ODT have three south up maps with a choice of projection; you can buy them from ODT by phone. There is a short history of ODT in the Northeastern University magazine.
An upsidedown map of the Americas called A New World of Understanding by Jesse Levine is available from Laguna Sales, 4015 Orme Street, Palo Alto, CA 94306 or 415-494-7729. [ Source: Jim by email, referencing Interfaith resources page. ]
There’s an upside down Australian map entilted “No Longer Down Under” then “Advance Australia Fair” from All Gifts, Melbourne (03) 328 4025. [ Source: email from Wood, who would like to know where to buy it without the costly international phone call ]
You can buy a Pacific centred Japanese map from the Imaginatorium Shop [ Source: email from Peter ].
Round the World
Arabia (Ancient): They put south at the top. This is because when you wake up and face the sun, south is on the right. Because of positive associations with the right as opposed to left, they put that on top. Yemen is so named because it is on the “yamin” right of Arabia. And of course, with the sea to the south of them there was nothing “on top” of the country, so they prefered it that way. Europeans learnt mapmaking from the Arabians and flipped the map to make themselves on top. [ Source: email from Jessica who heard a talk by an American Muslim scholar called Hamza Yusuf. ]
Arctic/Antarctic: A natural map of the poles has either south or north at the top and at the bottom – indeed, in all directions. Unusually, the opposite compass direction will be located in the centre. [ Source: email from Fred made me realise this ]
Australia: Maps are pacific centred. [ Source: Mail from Rev. ]
Biblical Times: There is evidence from the Torah that east was at the top of maps. In Genesis, Abraham’s nephew, Lot, is captured in war and carried away. Abraham races to the rescue. He and his men catch up with Lot’s captors, and set him free, in “Chovah, which is to the left of Damascus.” (Gen. 14:15). Chovah is north of Damascus. In Psalms 89:13 it says, “The north and the right, You created them”. This implies that right is synonymous with south, so you are facing east when you read the map. [ Source: email from Toby ]
Medieval Europe: Jerusalem was on top because that was the Holy Land. This meant that east was more or less at the top. [ Source: email from JDG who has personal experience of medieval records ]
China (Ancient): The Chinese were the first to invent the compass, which they always thought of as pointing south. South was a sacred direction, in ceremony the king would always face south. [ Source: email from Andy ]
China / Japan: In modern times, Chinese and Japanese maps are split at the Atlantic, so have Japan right in the middle and China near the center. [Source: personal observation by Francis in early 2003; email from Jez who used to live in Japan ] In Tokyo, English language maps that are for sale are printed in Australia; the maps in both countries are Pacific Centred. [ Source: email from Rev ]
Egypt (Ancient): The pyramids are aligned with true north. This was calculated using a grouping of stars, that they believed to be holy because the pharaoh’s “spirit” would travel there after death. However, they also thought that “up” was south because of the northwards flow of the Nile; rivers must flow “downwards”. [ Source: email from Mark, who was told this by his history teacher ]
India (Ancient): Sanskrit “daksa” means ‘able, strong, dexterous’; whence “daksina” meaning both ‘right’ and ‘south’. Presumably this indicates that they used maps with East at the top. [ Source: email from Anton. Anybody know anything about map orientation in India, ancient or modern? ]
New Zealand: Upsidedown or “corrected” maps are becoming more popular, especially with tourists. For example, a tea towel with such a map saying “no longer down under”. [ Source: email from Jez who has bought such a towel ] As a child, a New Zealand friend always referred to the maps with North at the top as “the wrong way up”, and this page’s “upside down” maps as “the right way up” or “the way it’s supposed to be…” [ Source: email from CH ]
Russia: The former soviet union placed its maps with the USSR at the center.
US, Canada: Some maps are as in Europe, with the Americas on the left. [ Source: email from mp, email from Martin ] Some are rotated with the Americas in the middle, China split in half, and Bangladesh and Bhutan almost lost in the margin. [ Source: email from Patty, her map like this is from The George F. Cram Company Inc, 301 S. LaSAlle St., Indianapolis Indiana 46201 Phone # 1800-227-4199 ] Can anyone tell me what causes the variation in the US, is it to do with age or to do with state or something else?
Upsidedown Resources
Dreaming Upside-Down by Tom Peterson, a story about what might happen if all the maps in the world were flipped. Oxfam, a place to go if you want to do something about the dream.
Joaquín Torres, a Uruguayan painter, lived in Barcelona in the early 1900s. He questioned why world maps are drawn with North at the top when the universe is infinite and has no sides and the world is suspended in it. In the late 1930s he returned to Uruguay, and made this 1943 illustration of South America (image on a magic realist map site). It is an early example of an upside down map. [ Source: email from Carlos ] An article titled Latino Art Crossing Borders has some more details.
Mafalda by Argentinian cartoonist Quino is a popular daily strip in Latin America and Spain. It is very political, yet about Mafalda, a 5 year old girl. One of the most famous episodes is based on the question: “why are we down?” She finally concludes that the southern hemisphere is so undeveloped because the ideas fall off. Then she puts her globe upside-down and, for a few days, everything is upside-down. [ Source: email from Nacho ] Copy with translation of part of the cartoon in Southern Cross Review, all of the Cartoon on a Spanish language blog.
There’s an interesting looking book called Seeing Through Maps; you can download the first chapter for free. For a general history and discussion of mapmaking try The Mapmakers by John Noble Wilford.
The Dymaxion Map has no compass direction consistently facing the same way; it is in the form of an unfolded icosahedron. It was made by Buckminster Fuller, a sustainability advocate ahead of his time. His intriguing World Game is played on a playground sized version. This reminds me of a similar small world map made by the CIA (on university of Texas website).
You might also be interested in the Peters Projection which is a map accurately representing land area. Although make sure you read about Peters vs Mercator and how there are other more globe-like non-rectangular maps. This paper on the Peters Projection mentions upsidedown maps.
On the TV series The West Wing there was an episode featuring a fictional “Organization of Cartographers For Social Equality”. To start with they promote the use of Peters Projection maps in schools, but later on suggest upsidedown maps: In addition, they propose ending top/bottom attitudes by putting the northern hemisphere on the bottom of the map. C.J. protests that they can’t do that, “’cause it’s freaking me out.” (quote from an episode synopsis that used to be on gist.com)
The nascent International Society for Global Inversion believes that flipping iconic world maps everywhere would be a symbolic ceremony to help mankind break its old thought patterns, and act in a more ecological way. I like the idea of using an upsidedown texture on the various small earth maps often found in logos. While Rupert’s Worldview has similar cartographic global justice goals.
Some people find navigating easier if they rotate maps so that up is in the direction that they are facing. There is a small tradition of printing road maps upside down to make this more convenient. You can buy California Upside Down which is double sided, with north at the top on one side, and south at the top on the other. Similarly, there’s an Upsidedown Map of California [ Source: email from Angie ].
Star maps are mirrored along the east-west axis, so north is at the bottom and south at the top. You can lie down and hold the map over your head, comparing it with the sky. Anybody else know examples of maps which are reflected (rather than rotated)? [ Source: forum posting by beejay ]
Most of the world’s land mass is in the northern hemisphere, and Deley’s solar mythology page discusses how this has influenced map orientation. It goes on to explain why the direction of clockwise is bias – because in the north sundial shadows move that way. Anyone know of any anti clockwise clocks which have been marketed as “down under”? Deley also gives a link to Straight Dope’s take on why North is always up. This letter from Albert Fonda also explains the connection between clockwise and the sun’s motion, and goes on to describe why the axis system used in aircraft is “upside-down”.
A Guide to Unusual Maps on the Web has lots of useful links to all manner of maps, including some upsidedown ones.
Look at pages that link to this page for some interesting related sites and information.
Please leave a comment below:
- If you know of other places to buy upsidedown maps
- To tell me how maps in your country are oriented
- If you know of any resources or histories relating to map orientation and “rotation” on the web
- With any other information for this page
Thank you to everyone who has emailed me and contributed to this page. That kind help and support is what makes the internet. More recently I’ve credited people as sources so we can track where information is from.
I was talking with a friend about the fact that a woman might say that parts of her body were ‘heading South’. In Australia, would they say that they are ‘heading North?
That’s a good Question, and it make one think, but to answer it, NO….everyone, including us here in Australia thinks of south as down. Obviously EVERYONE is indoctrinated to think of North as UP and South as DOWN.
Mo, 11-12-2017, 14:07.
.
Let us change Left and Right too. And let us change West and East. Let us change Scientific Thinking into Small Talk.
.
Henry Kloostra.
I was looking for an upside-down map for a while and my most wanted gift is an upside-down tellurion. Although you can find some 360 rotated floating tellurion, I still couldn’t find a perfect one that has upside-down illustrations ;(
And in China, almost everybody will say ‘up is North, down is South, left is West and right is East’ (????????) like kind of foundation knowledge of Fengshui
When you’re standing in front of a mirror, what happens? Left becomes right, right becomes left, right? But up stays up, and down stays down, upright?
Here in NZ they talk about the “lower North Island” meaning the southern part of it. So there is an association of “upper” with north and “lower” with south. Does this happen elsewhere?
Yep, in the US you might say I am going “up” to New York and “Down” to Florida, NY being a Northeastern state and FL being a Southeastern state.
I am wondering, overthere in NZ, where the sun comes up and goes to sleep, and where the moon
and I have the same question for Asia …
(i am from belgium and i never left europ)
The sun (also the moon, the stars and planets) comes up in the east, as well in NZ, as in Blankenberge. However, in the southern hemisphere, the highest point is reached in the north. The sun sets in the west. This means that south of the equator the sun moves from right to left. With us in the northern hemisphere, that movement is from left to right.
Re: Sanskrit “daksina” meaning both ‘right’ and ‘south’:
The modern Welsh language (Cymraeg) also preserves this – the word ‘de’ (from the same linguistic root as the Sanskrit; pronounced like the English word ‘day’) means both ‘right’ and ‘south’. I’d always wondered why, now I know !
– And in a slightly related subject : we were once discussing the (false, but commonly believed) phenomenon of water going down a plug-hole in opposite directions in opposite hemispheres.
My friend observed : “the water doesn’t really go down the plughole the opposite way in Australia – the whirlpool is turning in the *same* direction, but they’re looking at it *upside down*…” (which makes total sense !)
North South East West – It really does not make any difference. A person who spends any time studying maps knows that the conditions stated exist. It was not done purposefully it was the only way they knew how to do it when maps were first created.
Yes it is possible that any place could have been selected to be the beginning of the time but someone picked Greenwich time and it stuck.
“Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) refers to the mean solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London, which became adopted as a global time standard.”
Words have meaning and it goes without saying maps are accepted throughout the world as they currently appear.
Why is it necessary to try to change maps when a person can buy a modern map which shows the correct size of all continents and as much as possible islands. You can also purchase a globe which is very close to correct.
There is no reason to attempt to make Africa less significant. What is needed is more study of African history that extends south of the Sahara Desert.
A person does not have to accept White history, Chinese history or any other history, one can study the history of any place they want to study.
0° through Greenwich won out as the Prime Meridian only because the British were the world’s predominant and persistent explorers and cartographers in the modern age. There were 2 main rivals for Prime Meridian. There was the Paris Meridian at 2°20?14.03? east (of Greenwich), which the French used until 1911 for timekeeping purposes and 1914 for navigation. There was also the Antwerp Meridian at 4°24?12.00? east(approximate). It’s this confusion that has disappointed a number of would-be treasure hunters who found themselves searching in the wrong place since the error distance increases as you go closer to the equator. To put this into perspective – 77°20? would place you in Runaway Bay in Jamaica while the Paris Meridian would place you on Navassa Island, and Antwerp would have you in Croix Hilairie in Haiti. All are at roughly the same lattitude. (Online maps would help visualise this and compare the errordifference in Northern Canada).
In the northern part of Belgium, ‘to loose your North side’ (‘het noorden kwijt zijn’) means your mental health is in a bad shape, or you have completely lost yourself…
As a Dutchman, I have been working in Brussels, Belgium, for several years. The variety of the Dutch language we speak differs a great deal from the Flemish I heard my colleagues speaking. I actually had to learn about 500 new words and several dozens of expressions in Flemish, notwithstanding the fact that I grew up speaking ‘the same’ language as my colleagues.
‘To loose your North side’ needed hardly any explanation, since I have always kept my map with the north side up, ever since I was a boy scout! :-)
I think you meant “Lose” rather than “Loose” which, in English, means to “unleash” rather than misplace.
No. it means that something is loose, a door handle is loose and may fall off. A wheel is loose and may come off. An old and possibly now inappropriate expression here is that someone “has a screw loose”.
Sorry, but he really meant lose as in the screw is lost. I’m bilingual in English and Dutch (Flemish). ‘Kwijt zijn’ means ‘to lose something’.
It is quite particular for a Flamand to say something like that: they have lost their North since 1830 ;-)
het noorden kwijt zijn doesn’t realy mean you have lost the north, it means you are confused
In Hungarian South is called dél, which means noon, or when the sun is at its highest point. I remember confusing North and South for a long time as a kid. It only seemed logical that South should be up, like the sun. Then a teacher pointed out that it doesn’t work that way, and the two things are not related. Now it all makes sense! Maybe they are related after all.
Interesting. Yes, in our minds most of us have engraved north is up. How much of our behavior is conditioned for ideas somebody engrave in us? What ideas we consider as good or bad are backwards? It is happening only because this society make us think like they want? Are we acting like humans, or like citizens following a map that show us where is the society north, and we are not following human north?
Very nice collection! I have seen two more variants of these south-up oriented maps.
— http://collections.museumca.org/?q=collection-item/2010548663
— http://urbangeographies.tumblr.com/post/109887573546/upside-down-maps-another-inverted-map-for-your
See now that you already had links but not images for those two mentioned above. Oh well. This page is a great resource! Would you consider contributing to the wikipedia page on this topic? Presently your page has much more content, and there is discussion among wikipedia editors about whether to delete the “south-up map orientation” wikipedia page for insufficient content… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South-up_map_orientation
In Canada we refer to traveling the same way as Americans, if I am traveling to California, I say I’m going down there, whereas if I am traveling to the Yukon Territory, I say I’m going up. The British influence is greatly seen here in our maps… we refer to ourselves as the “True North, Strong and Free.” If Canada has been explored and mapped using “upside down” maps, then perhaps our National Anthem would say Canada, True North Strong and Free… just a thought.
Correction: wouldn’t* (in the last sentence)
The Wizard’s south up map was also to challenge the Eurocentric idea that Australia and New Zealand were “Down Under”. During the Vietnam War Australians and New Zealanders had a fear of the Asiatic hordes swarming down from Asia which only makes sense when you have north at the top of the map.
When Ronald Reagan tried to expose the threat from the Sandanistas in Nicaragua he had trouble convincing the public that the communists would swarm north “up” from Central America and threaten the US
In Portuguese as well we use the expression “desnorteado” meaning the same as “disorientado” or disoriented for dazed, lost and confused. Funny that both synonyms refer to having lost points of the compass, “norte” or “North” and “oriente” or “Orient” for “east”.
The French use the word ouest for west. Ouest = où est? où l’est? where is the east?
Correction: desorientado
Why do you use the term “upside down”? Surely that immediately concedes the point? Better to use “South-up”, no?
Living in Australia I can recall being visted by UK relatives in the 1980’s. I would always take the opportunity to draw the map in correct orientation which is with south at the top. Some off them just couldn’t get thier mind around it. I was also at pains to enquire how the managed to stay attached to the world when they went back home, did they hang on by thier teeth or what?.
For all those non believers out there that laugh and say crazy aussies I put this little test to you.
Imagine that you are positioned directly above the axis pole looking down on the earth ….. Which way should it spin ….. Clock wise or anticlock wise?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
If you said Clockwise then you are viewing “Down” from the south pole which means that South is actually UP …….
The California Water Atlas (1979) has a very sensible sideways map of the state to emphasize its hydraulic resources. Which makes me wonder if countries such as Chile and Norway have similar versions? Also, check out the maps in Look at the World (1944), an atlas by Richard Edes Harrison. It has many bird’s-eye views of parts of the globe from non-traditional vantages. A real eye (and mind) opener.
These aren’t upside down. They just have the south at the top. Just because we’re not used to that doesn’t make it upside down.
You are right. There is no such thing as the world being upside down.
Yep…. “good is evil,” . . . and Up is Down, and the Rulers teach the teachers to tell us all what to believe.
And it would so easy for the compass makers to change the South to the North ( or up-side-down,) and BINGO ya all will believe a lie.
But the “TRUTH is always stranger than Fiction.”
So if it sounds like “Fiction,” it may be the truth, but wrong teachings could have con-vinced the “schooled” other-than-wise.
Re-seachers who really want to get outside the “box” they be in, will end up having the rest of the “trained” call them crazy.
I’m the “other” JD!
I also found this blog site with several different orientations of world map
http://baringtheaegis.blogspot.com.au/2015/01/ancient-maps-and-modern-world.html
so is Australia’s world globe upside down as well? i will admit if i was drawing a map i would draw it the way I feel is right side up. My teaching and environmental influences lead me to believe that north is up even though if I look at a compass north is a direction not up or down. If you turn south your not looking down but if you take one step your heading south. These maps are not wrong and they are not right. It is the belief of those who have drawn them and the teachings from those that rely on them that make them what they are. The only issue is when I look at them they are extremely cool but drive me nuts looking at them. I feel it is all weird or backwards. but the is just me. Maps should be internationally standardized as one way to help cause less confusion I frankly do not care which was is picked to be right. keep the history and the culture but have a normality among all nations. but the map is extremely cool just the same. I like it and the history lesson here.
“The Fra Mauro map, considered the greatest memorial of medieval cartography, is a map of the world made around 1450 by the Italian cartographer Fra Mauro. It is oriented with south at the top”.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fra_Mauro_map
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/FraMauroDetailedMap.jpg (10 MB, but worth a look)
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Thank you for the information. And it’s always been a thought of the orientation of world maps. Being from the Caribbean Islands.(Puerto Rico). Being indoctrinated that North is up and South is down.
Indian maps are usually North up maps. It is likely that this is because many who came to India migrated from central Asia and for them, going to India was going ‘down’ south. As per Hindu mythology, the God of death, Yam, lives in the south. So it is unlikely that maps in India were produced with South on the top.
This is great!
Having recently relocated to the Southern Hemisphere, the South-up orientation is a real help when thinking about solar orientation.
Would love to have a high-quality (or at least a NatGeo quality) wall map with this orientation. Many of the links in the first paragraph have bit-rotted… Anyone know where to find one? Also a hi-def gif or png would be nice for… purposes! :)
Hello!
How i can buy south-up map of world from Russia?
The University of Chicago multi volume scholarly History of Cartography is available free in PDF format on their website. Starts with very early middle eastern maps and traces the detailed history of map evolution through to the present.
Personally I think the globe should be viewed at a 90° angle, so the North and South Pole are at the sides. That way there is no up or down and everybody gets the chance to be on top of the world every day!
As a child living in Sydney, Australia, early 1960’s, I grew up with a Pacific centered map of the world on my wall. So that’s the basically the view that was imprinted on me. Europe was on the left edge, America on the right and I was in the middle. At the age of nine I moved to The Netherlands and the map ‘moved’ too. America was now on the left and Australia on the right. That really took some getting used to and made me realize how relative maps were/are. I also notice a difference in world view. Whereas born Europeans have a strong Atlantic orientation, mine is more Pacific and Asian. I have always kept up on the goings on in those regions.
Also during my Sydney years in the early 1960’s there was a general feeling of Australia being somewhat of a backwater, the Down Under as a feeling was prevalent. So viewing the world at a 90° angle could have avoided that ;-).
Can I use your first image of upside down in a book I am writing? If so can you email a permission letter for the publisher. Sincerely, Anthony
At the first impression of the upside map I thought all the countries are so much closer to each other and the first impression I though its a lot wider than before.
I like the traditional map because when I was young I lived in the Western Hemisphere and cycled a mile to school in the Eastern Hemisphere . . .
Does any one know where I can by a globe oriented “upside down” with the correct tilt and all?