It’s holiday season down here in NZ. What I failed to realise until we went up to Cardrona was that this means the resorts are absolutely packed with thousands of complete idiots…(imagine everywhere about as busy as a northern hemisphere Christmas)

So after waiting 30 minutes to ride the first lift, we headed out the back of the resort and went for a long hike. Later in the day, with the queues still ridiculous, we came off the mountain and went for a wander through the old Cardrona township.

Kiwis (and Aussies) seem to have a bit of an issue about being on the arse end of a world map, so I wasnt surprised to come across this:

Now who’s on the top of the world, bru?

The whole north/south thing is obviously just a man made construct, and the history of mankind is full of examples of races putting themselves in the centre/top:

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.

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.

Australia: Maps are pacific centred.

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.

Medieval Europe: Jerusalem was on top because that was the Holy Land. This meant that east was more or less at the top.

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.

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. In Tokyo, English language maps that are for sale are printed in Australia; the maps in both countries are Pacific Centred.

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”.

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.

New Zealand: Upsidedown or “corrected” maps are becoming more popular, especially with tourists.

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. Some are rotated with the Americas in the middle, China split in half, and Bangladesh and Bhutan almost lost in the margin.

Source: flourish.org