A Moroccan cartographer draws the world with the south on top

Al-Idrisi finished his world map in 1154 with south at the top, the Arabian peninsula in the middle, the Red Sea on one side and the Persian Gulf on the other, and Africa above them. Nothing about the arrangement is careless. Before the magnetic compass was taken up in European navigation, the two fixed points a traveller used were where the sun rises and where it sets. The word orientation carries that history, since to orient yourself was to face the sunrise. East and west became cardinal directions once the compass was in general use, and the same shift put north at the top of the page and south at the bottom. Mapmakers outside Europe did not all follow. Al-Idrisi's map is a reminder that the familiar picture of the globe, with Europe near the top and Africa hanging below it, is a convention with a date attached to it.