Why is North "up" instead of South?

[David W. Deley]

I was examining a globe and noticed that most of all the
land on earth is in the Northern Hemisphere.
Do you think this is why most maps today put North
at the top of the map, so most of the land is at the top
of the map? (Because we don't like to look down on
ourselves?) And we make globes with North at the top,
because it makes it easy to see most of the land? (If
we made South the top of the globe we'd all be crouching
our heads down most of the time because most of the
land would then be at the bottom of the globe.)

[Mike]

It's simply because northern hemisphere cartographers were the most
polific (and published). I won't even venture to say that they were
the first cartographers because I'm sure some indigenous person
somewhere in Arica or the south Pacific could claim that mark.

Mike Colavito

[Dan Tilque]

David W. Deley <del...@gte.net> performed an arpeggio on a
keyboard and produced:

> I was examining a globe and noticed that most of all the
> land on earth is in the Northern Hemisphere.
> Do you think this is why most maps today put North
> at the top of the map, so most of the land is at the top
> of the map?

The word according to Cecil:
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_159.html

--
Dan Tilque

[Matje]

"David W. Deley" <del...@gte.net> wrote in message
news:bf7780cc.0208...@posting.google.com...

Obvious..;
the south has Antartica which is a lot of sand and rocks..!
the north has the nothpole, contains of a bunch of ice..!
Now everyone can do a simple test at home; take a glass of Coca-Cola, put
some sand and some ice-cubes in it.....doesn't that refect the way the earth
is possitioned ?

Matje