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The four cardinal directions, or cardinal points, are the four main
compass A compass is a device that shows the cardinal directions used for navigation and geographic orientation. It commonly consists of a magnetized needle or other element, such as a compass card or compass rose, which can pivot to align itself with ...
directions:
north North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north ...
, east, south, and west, commonly denoted by their initials N, E, S, and W respectively. Relative to north, the directions east, south, and west are at 90 degree intervals in the
clockwise Two-dimensional rotation can occur in two possible directions. Clockwise motion (abbreviated CW) proceeds in the same direction as a clock's hands: from the top to the right, then down and then to the left, and back up to the top. The opposite ...
direction. The ordinal directions (also called the intercardinal directions) are northeast (NE), southeast (SE), southwest (SW), and northwest (NW). The intermediate direction of every set of intercardinal and cardinal direction is called a secondary intercardinal direction. These eight shortest points in the
compass rose A compass rose, sometimes called a wind rose, rose of the winds or compass star, is a figure on a compass, map, nautical chart, or monument used to display the orientation of the cardinal directions (north, east, south, and west) and thei ...
shown to the right are: # West-northwest (WNW) # North-northwest (NNW) # North-northeast (NNE) # East-northeast (ENE) # East-southeast (ESE) # South-southeast (SSE) # South-southwest (SSW) # West-southwest (WSW) Points between the cardinal directions form the points of the compass. Arbitrary
horizontal direction In astronomy, geography, and related sciences and contexts, a '' direction'' or ''plane'' passing by a given point is said to be vertical if it contains the local gravity direction at that point. Conversely, a direction or plane is said to be hor ...
s may be indicated by their
azimuth An azimuth (; from ar, اَلسُّمُوت, as-sumūt, the directions) is an angular measurement in a spherical coordinate system. More specifically, it is the horizontal angle from a cardinal direction, most commonly north. Mathematical ...
angle value.


Determination


Additional points


Degrees of rotation

The directional names are routinely associated with the degrees of rotation in the unit circle, a necessary step for
navigation Navigation is a field of study that focuses on the process of monitoring and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another.Bowditch, 2003:799. The field of navigation includes four general categories: land navigation ...
al calculations (derived from
trigonometry Trigonometry () is a branch of mathematics that studies relationships between side lengths and angles of triangles. The field emerged in the Hellenistic world during the 3rd century BC from applications of geometry to astronomical studies. ...
) and for use with Global Positioning
Satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioiso ...
( GPS) receivers. The four cardinal directions correspond to the following degrees of a compass: * North (N): 0° = 360° * East (E): 90° * South (S): 180° * West (W): 270°


Intercardinal directions

The intercardinal (intermediate, or, historically, ordinal) directions are the four intermediate compass directions located halfway between each pair of cardinal directions. * Northeast (NE), 45°, halfway between north and east, is the opposite of southwest. * Southeast (SE), 135°, halfway between south and east, is the opposite of northwest. * Southwest (SW), 225°, halfway between south and west, is the opposite of northeast. * Northwest (NW), 315°, halfway between north and west, is the opposite of southeast. These eight directional names have been further compounded known as tertiary intercardinal directions, resulting in a total of 32 named points evenly spaced around the compass: north (N), north by east (NbE), north-northeast (NNE), northeast by north (NEbN), northeast (NE), northeast by east (NEbE), east-northeast (ENE), east by north (EbN), east (E), etc.


Usefulness

With the cardinal points thus accurately defined; by convention cartographers draw standard maps with north (N) at the top, and east (E) at the
right Rights are legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal system, social convention, or ethical ...
. In turn, maps provide a systematic means to record where places are, and cardinal directions are the foundation of a structure for telling someone how to find those places. Additionally, in most languages this same cardinal-relative mapping is sometimes used in everyday usage when the speaker uses the cardinal directional term instead of the corresponding
body relative direction Body relative directions (also known as egocentric coordinates) are geometrical orientations relative to a body such as a human person's. The most common ones are: left and right; forward(s) and backward(s); up and down. They form three pair ...
al term, even though a relative directional term already exists in that language. That being said, in cartography north does not have to be at the top. Most maps in medieval Europe, for example, placed east (E) at the top. A few cartographers prefer south-up maps. Many portable GPS-based
navigation Navigation is a field of study that focuses on the process of monitoring and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another.Bowditch, 2003:799. The field of navigation includes four general categories: land navigation ...
computer A computer is a machine that can be programmed to carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations ( computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as programs. These prog ...
s today can be set to display maps either conventionally (N always up, E always right) or with the current instantaneous direction of travel, called the heading, always up (and whatever direction is +90° from that to the right). In Canada, New Zealand, and the United States, each direction of travel along a numbered highway is assigned a cardinal direction. This cardinal direction may not necessarily match the road's orientation at every given location (see
Wrong-way concurrency A concurrency in a road network is an instance of one physical roadway bearing two or more different route numbers. When two roadways share the same right-of-way, it is sometimes called a common section or commons. Other terminology for a concur ...
).


Beyond geography

''Cardinal directions'' or ''cardinal points'' may sometimes be extended to include
elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § ...
(
altitude Altitude or height (also sometimes known as depth) is a distance measurement, usually in the vertical or "up" direction, between a reference datum and a point or object. The exact definition and reference datum varies according to the context ...
, depth):
north North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north ...
, south, east, west, up and down, or mathematically the six directions of the x-, y-, and z-axes in
three-dimensional space Three-dimensional space (also: 3D space, 3-space or, rarely, tri-dimensional space) is a geometric setting in which three values (called ''parameters'') are required to determine the position of an element (i.e., point). This is the informa ...
. Topographic maps include elevation, typically via
contour line A contour line (also isoline, isopleth, or isarithm) of a function of two variables is a curve along which the function has a constant value, so that the curve joins points of equal value. It is a plane section of the three-dimensional gr ...
s. In
astronomy Astronomy () is a natural science that studies celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, nebulae, g ...
, the ''cardinal points'' of an
astronomical body An astronomical object, celestial object, stellar object or heavenly body is a naturally occurring physical entity, association, or structure that exists in the observable universe. In astronomy, the terms ''object'' and ''body'' are often u ...
as seen in the sky are four points defined by the directions toward which the celestial poles lie relative to the center of the disk of the object in the sky. A line (a great circle on the celestial sphere) from the center of the disk to the North celestial pole will intersect the edge of the body (the "
limb Limb may refer to: Science and technology * Limb (anatomy), an appendage of a human or animal *Limb, a large or main branch of a tree *Limb, in astronomy, the curved edge of the apparent disk of a celestial body, e.g. lunar limb *Limb, in botany, ...
") at the North point. The North point will then be the point on the limb that is closest to the North celestial pole. Similarly, a line from the center to the South celestial pole will define the South point by its intersection with the limb. The points at right angles to the North and South points are the East and West points. Going around the disk clockwise from the North point, one encounters in order the West point, the South point, and then the East point. This is opposite to the order on a terrestrial map because one is looking up instead of down. Similarly, when describing the location of one astronomical object relative to another, "north" means closer to the North celestial pole, "east" means at a higher right ascension, "south" means closer to the South celestial pole, and "west" means at a lower right ascension. If one is looking at two stars that are below the North Star, for example, the one that is "east" will actually be further to the left.


Germanic origin of names

During the Migration Period, the Germanic names for the cardinal directions entered the
Romance languages The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language ...
, where they replaced the
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
names ''borealis'' (or ''septentrionalis'') with north, ''australis'' (or ''meridionalis'') with south, ''occidentalis'' with west and ''orientalis'' with east. It is possible that some northern people used the Germanic names for the intermediate directions. Medieval Scandinavian orientation would thus have involved a 45 degree rotation of cardinal directions. *''north'' (
Proto-Germanic Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. Proto-Germanic eventually developed from pre-Proto-Germanic into three Germanic br ...
''*norþ-'') from the
proto-Indo-European Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. Its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-European languages. No direct record of Proto-Indo ...
*''nórto-s'' 'submerged' from the root *''ner-'' 'left, below, to the left of the rising sun' whence comes the
Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic pe ...
name '' Nereus''. *''east'' (''*aus-t-'') from the word for
dawn Dawn is the time that marks the beginning of twilight before sunrise. It is recognized by the appearance of indirect sunlight being scattered in Earth's atmosphere, when the centre of the Sun's disc has reached 18° below the observer's ...
. The proto-Indo-European form is *''austo-s'' from the root *''aues''- 'shine (red)'. See '' Ēostre''. *''south'' (''*sunþ-''), derived from proto-Indo-European *''sú-n-to-s'' from the root *''seu''- 'seethe, boil'. Cognate with this root is the word '' Sun'', thus "the region of the Sun". *''west'' (''*wes-t-'') from a word for "evening". The proto-Indo-European form is *''uestos'' from the root *ues- 'shine (red)', itself a form of *''aues''-. Cognate with the root are the
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
words '' vesper'' and '' vesta'' and the
Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic pe ...
'' Hestia'', ''
Hesperus In Greek mythology, Hesperus (; grc, Ἕσπερος, Hésperos) is the Evening Star, the planet Venus in the evening. He is one of the ''Astra Planeta''. A son of the dawn goddess Eos (Roman Aurora), he is the half-brother of her other son, ...
'' and ''
Hesperides In Greek mythology, the Hesperides (; , ) are the nymphs of evening and golden light of sunsets, who were the "Daughters of the Evening" or "Nymphs of the West". They were also called the Atlantides () from their reputed father, the Titan At ...
''.


Cultural variations

In many regions of the world, prevalent winds change direction seasonally, and consequently many cultures associate specific named
wind Wind is the natural movement of air or other gases relative to a planet's surface. Winds occur on a range of scales, from thunderstorm flows lasting tens of minutes, to local breezes generated by heating of land surfaces and lasting a few ...
s with cardinal and intercardinal directions. For example, classical Greek culture characterized these winds as Anemoi. In pre-modern Europe more generally, between eight and 32 points of the compass – cardinal and intercardinal directions – were given names. These often corresponded to the directional winds of the
Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on ...
(for example, southeast was linked to the '' Sirocco'', a wind from the Sahara). Particular
color Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are associ ...
s are associated in some traditions with the cardinal points. These are typically " natural colors" of human perception rather than optical primary colors. Many cultures, especially in
Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...
, include the center as a fifth cardinal point.


Northern Eurasia

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes the fo ...
n,
Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russia, whi ...
an and
North East Asia Northeast Asia or Northeastern Asia is a geographical subregion of Asia; its northeastern landmass and islands are bounded by the Pacific Ocean. The term Northeast Asia was popularized during the 1930s by American historian and political scienti ...
n cultures frequently have traditions associating colors with four or five cardinal points. Systems with five cardinal points (four directions and the center) include those from pre-modern China, as well as traditional Turkic,
Tibetan Tibetan may mean: * of, from, or related to Tibet * Tibetan people, an ethnic group * Tibetan language: ** Classical Tibetan, the classical language used also as a contemporary written standard ** Standard Tibetan, the most widely used spoken diale ...
and Ainu cultures. In Chinese tradition, the five cardinal point system is related to I Ching, the Wu Xing and the five
naked-eye planet In classical antiquity, the seven classical planets or seven luminaries are the seven moving astronomical objects in the sky visible to the naked eye: the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. The word ''planet'' comes from ...
s. In traditional
Chinese astrology Chinese astrology is based on the traditional astronomy and calendars. Chinese astrology came to flourish during the Han Dynasty (2nd century BC to 2nd century AD). Chinese astrology has a close relation with Chinese philosophy (theory of the ...
, the zodiacal belt is divided into the four constellation groups corresponding to the directions. Each direction is often identified with a color, and (at least in China) with a mythological creature of that color. Geographical or ethnic terms may contain the name of the color instead of the name of the corresponding direction.


Examples

East:
Green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a combin ...
( "qīng" corresponds to both green and blue); Spring;
Wood Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin ...
: Qingdao (Tsingtao): "Green Island", a city on the east coast of China : Green Ukraine South: Red; Summer;
Fire Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material (the fuel) in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products. At a certain point in the combustion reaction, called the ignition point, flames ...
: Red River (Asia): south of China : Red Ruthenia :
Red Jews The Red Jews (), a legendary Jewish nation, appear in vernacular sources in Germany during the medieval era, from the 13th to the 15th centuries. These texts portray the Red Jews as an epochal threat to Christendom, one which would invade Eur ...
: a semi-mythological group of Jews : Red Croatia :
Red Sea The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; ...
West:
White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White ...
; Autumn;
Metal A metal (from ancient Greek, Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electrical resistivity and conductivity, e ...
: White Sheep Turkmen :
Akdeniz Akdeniz is a municipality and district governorate in Greater Mersin, Turkey. Mersin is one of the 30 Metropolitan centers in Turkey with more than one municipality within city borders. Now in Mersin there are four second-level municipalities i ...
, meaning 'White Sea':
Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on ...
in Turkish : Balts,
Baltic Baltic may refer to: Peoples and languages *Baltic languages, a subfamily of Indo-European languages, including Lithuanian, Latvian and extinct Old Prussian *Balts (or Baltic peoples), ethnic groups speaking the Baltic languages and/or originatin ...
words containing the stem ''balt-'' ("white") :
White Ruthenia White Ruthenia ( cu, Бѣла Роусь, Bela Rous'; be, Белая Русь, Biełaja Ruś; pl, Ruś Biała; russian: Белая Русь, Belaya Rus'; ukr, Біла Русь, Bila Rus') alternatively known as Russia Alba, White Rus' or W ...
: White Croatia North:
Black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ha ...
; Winter;
Water Water (chemical formula ) is an inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms (in which it acts as ...
:
Heilongjiang Heilongjiang () Postal romanization, formerly romanized as Heilungkiang, is a Provinces of China, province in northeast China. The standard one-character abbreviation for the province is (). It was formerly romanized as "Heilungkiang". It is th ...
: "Black Dragon River" province in Northeast China, also the Amur River : Kara-Khitan Khanate: "Black Khitans" who originated in Northern China :
Karadeniz Karadeniz is the Turkish name for the Black Sea, also used as a surname. People * Gökdeniz Karadeniz, Turkish football player * Batuhan Karadeniz, Turkish football player * Barış Karadeniz, Turkish politician Other * Karadeniz Energy, a Tur ...
, literally meaning 'Black Sea':
Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Rom ...
in Turkish : Black Hungarians :
Black Ruthenia Black Ruthenia ( la, Ruthenia Nigra), or Black Rus' ( be, Чорная Русь, translit=Čornaja Ruś; lt, Juodoji Rusia; pl, Ruś Czarna), is a historical region on the Upper Nemunas, including Novogrudok (Naugardukas), Grodno (Gardinas) a ...
Center:
Yellow Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In th ...
;
Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's sur ...
:
Huangshan Huangshan (),Bernstein, pp. 125–127. literally meaning the Yellow Mountain(s), is a mountain range in southern Anhui Province in eastern China. It was originally called “Yishan”, and it was renamed because of a legend that Emperor Xua ...
: "Yellow Mountain" in central China :
Huang He The Yellow River or Huang He (Chinese: , Mandarin: ''Huáng hé'' ) is the second-longest river in China, after the Yangtze River, and the sixth-longest river system in the world at the estimated length of . Originating in the Bayan H ...
: "Yellow River" in central China :
Golden Horde The Golden Horde, self-designated as Ulug Ulus, 'Great State' in Turkic, was originally a Mongol and later Turkicized khanate established in the 13th century and originating as the northwestern sector of the Mongol Empire. With the fragmen ...
: "Central Army" of the Mongols


Arabic world

Countries where Arabic is used refer to the cardinal directions as ''Ash Shamal'' (N), ''Al Gharb'' (W), ''Ash Sharq'' (E) and ''Al Janoob'' (S). Additionally, ''Al Wusta'' is used for the center. All five are used for geographic subdivision names ('' wilayahs'', states, regions, governorates, provinces, districts or even towns), and some are the origin of some Southern Iberian place names (such as
Algarve The Algarve (, , ; from ) is the southernmost NUTS II region of continental Portugal. It has an area of with 467,495 permanent inhabitants and incorporates 16 municipalities ( ''concelhos'' or ''municípios'' in Portuguese). The region has it ...
, Portugal and
Axarquía Axarquía () is a ''comarca'' of Andalusia in southern Spain. It is the wedge-shaped area east of Málaga. Its name is traced back to Arabic (''aš-Šarqiyya'', meaning "the eastern egion). It extends along the coast and inland. Its coastal towns ...
, Spain).


Native Americans

In
Mesoamerica Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area in southern North America and most of Central America. It extends from approximately central Mexico through Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and northern Costa Rica. Wit ...
and
North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and th ...
, a number of traditional indigenous cosmologies include four cardinal directions and a center. Some may also include "above" and "below" as directions, and therefore focus on a cosmology of seven directions. Among the Hopi of the Southwestern United States, the four named cardinal directions are not North, South, East and West but are the four directions associated with the places of sunrise and sunset at the winter and summer solstices. Each direction may be associated with a color, which can vary widely between nations, but which is usually one of the basic colors found in nature and natural pigments, such as black, red, white, and yellow, with occasional appearances of blue, green, or other hues. There can be great variety in color symbolism, even among cultures that are close neighbors geographically.


India

Ten Hindu deities, known as the " Dikpālas", have been recognized in classical Indian scriptures, symbolizing the four cardinal and four intercardinal directions with the additional directions of up and down. Each of the ten directions has its own name in
Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural diffusion ...
.


Indigenous Australia

Some
indigenous Australians Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...
have cardinal directions deeply embedded in their culture. For example, the
Warlpiri people The Warlpiri, sometimes referred to as Yapa, are a group of Aboriginal Australians defined by their Warlpiri language, although not all still speak it. There are 5,000–6,000 Warlpiri, living mostly in a few towns and settlements scattered th ...
have a cultural philosophy deeply connected to the four cardinal directions and the Guugu Yimithirr people use cardinal directions rather than relative direction even when indicating the position of an object close to their body. (For more information, see: Cultures without relative directions.) The precise direction of the cardinal points appears to be important in
Aboriginal stone arrangement __NOTOC__ Aboriginal stone arrangements are a form of rock art constructed by Aboriginal Australians. Typically, they consist of stones, each of which may be about in size, laid out in a pattern extending over several metres or tens of metres. ...
s. Many aboriginal languages contain words for the usual four cardinal directions, but some contain words for 5 or even 6 cardinal directions.


Unique (non-compound) names of intercardinal directions

In some
language Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of ...
s, such as
Estonian Estonian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Estonia, a country in the Baltic region in northern Europe * Estonians, people from Estonia, or of Estonian descent * Estonian language * Estonian cuisine * Estonian culture See also * ...
, Finnish and Breton, the intercardinal directions have names that are not compounds of the names of the cardinal directions (as, for instance, ''northeast'' is compounded from ''north'' and ''east''). In Estonian, those are ''kirre'' (northeast), ''kagu'' (southeast), ''edel'' (southwest), and ''loe'' (northwest), in Finnish ''koillinen'' (northeast), ''kaakko'' (southeast), ''lounas'' (southwest), and ''luode'' (northwest). In Japanese, there is the interesting situation that native Japanese words ( yamato kotoba, kun readings of kanji) are used for the cardinal directions (such as ''minami'' for 南, south), but borrowed Chinese words (on readings of kanji) are used for intercardinal directions (such as ''tō-nan'' for 東南, southeast, lit. "east-south"). In the
Malay language Malay (; ms, Bahasa Melayu, links=no, Jawi: , Rencong: ) is an Austronesian language that is an official language of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, and that is also spoken in East Timor and parts of the Philippines an ...
, adding ''laut'' (sea) to either east (''timur'') or west (''barat'') results in northeast or northwest, respectively, whereas adding ''daya'' to west (giving ''barat daya'') results in southwest. Southeast has a special word: ''tenggara''. Sanskrit and other Indian languages that borrow from it use the names of the gods associated with each direction: east (Indra), southeast (Agni), south (Yama/Dharma), southwest (Nirrti), west (Varuna), northwest (Vayu), north (Kubera/Heaven) and northeast (Ishana/Shiva). North is associated with the Himalayas and heaven while the south is associated with the underworld or land of the fathers (Pitr loka). The directions are named by adding "disha" to the names of each god or entity: e.g. Indradisha (direction of Indra) or Pitrdisha (direction of the forefathers i.e. south). The cardinal directions of the Hopi language and the Tewa dialect spoken by the
Hopi-Tewa The Hopi-Tewa (also Tano, Southern Tewa, Hano, Thano, or Arizona Tewa) are a Tewa Pueblo group that resides on the eastern part of the Hopi Reservation on or near First Mesa in northeastern Arizona. Synonymy The name ''Tano'' is a Spanish bor ...
are related to the places of sunrise and sunset at the solstices, and correspond approximately to the European intercardinal directions.


Non-compass directional systems

Use of the compass directions is common and deeply embedded in European and
Chinese culture Chinese culture () is one of the world's oldest cultures, originating thousands of years ago. The culture prevails across a large geographical region in East Asia and is extremely diverse and varying, with customs and traditions varying grea ...
(see south-pointing chariot). Some other cultures make greater use of other referents, such as toward the sea or toward the mountains (
Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...
, Bali), or upstream and downstream (most notably in ancient
Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...
, also in the Yurok and Karuk languages).
Lengo The ancient rock art site of Lengo is located in the Bakouma region of the Central African Republic. Site Description The village of Lengo is on the road of Yalinga 3 km from Bakouma. The site of engravings is located on the right of this r ...
(Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands) has four non-compass directions: landward, seaward, upcoast, and downcoast. Some languages lack words for body-relative directions such as left/right, and use geographical directions instead.


See also

*
Azimuth An azimuth (; from ar, اَلسُّمُوت, as-sumūt, the directions) is an angular measurement in a spherical coordinate system. More specifically, it is the horizontal angle from a cardinal direction, most commonly north. Mathematical ...
* Classical compass winds – an early source of cardinal directions * Cultural synesthesia *
Elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § ...
– the mapping information ignored by the cardinal point system * Geocaching – an international hobby * Geographic Information System (GIS) *
Latitude In geography, latitude is a coordinate that specifies the north– south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from –90° at the south pole to 90° at the north ...
and
Longitude Longitude (, ) is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east– west position of a point on the surface of the Earth, or another celestial body. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees and denoted by the Greek let ...
* List of cartographers – famous map makers through history * List of international common standards *
Magnetic deviation Magnetic deviation is the error induced in a compass by ''local'' magnetic fields, which must be allowed for, along with magnetic declination, if accurate bearings are to be calculated. (More loosely, "magnetic deviation" is used by some to mea ...
– explanation of the slight misalignment of a compass with the Earth's north and south poles * Orienteering – an international hobby/sport that depends on knowledge of cardinal directions and how to locate them * Relative direction *
Uses of trigonometry Amongst the lay public of non-mathematicians and non-scientists, trigonometry is known chiefly for its application to measurement problems, yet is also often used in ways that are far more subtle, such as its place in the theory of music; still ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cardinal Direction Orientation (geometry)