Editing North (section)

==Roles of north as prime direction==
The visible rotation of the night sky around the visible [[celestial pole]] provides a vivid metaphor of that direction corresponding to "up".  Thus, the choice of the north as corresponding to "up" in the Northern Hemisphere, or of south in that role in the southern, is, before worldwide communication, anything but an arbitrary one - at least for night-time astronomers.<ref>
Compare:
{{cite book
 | last1 = Busenbark
 | first1 = Ernest
 | year = 1949
 | title = Symbols, Sex, and the Stars
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=XvUONxT9Oh8C
 | location = San Diego, California
 | publisher = Book Tree
 | publication-date = 1997
 | page = 133
 | isbn = 9781885395191
 | access-date = 5 December 2019
 | quote = Throughout the world, the east or sunrise point was the prime direction and signified light, life, and birth. The west and southwest were the land of the dead. Temples, cathedrals and churches were oriented to the sunrise point at the vernal equinox, to the summer solstice, or to the sunrise point on the day sacred to the saint to whom the church was dedicated. In China, however, the temple of the sun at Pekin was oriented to the sun at the time of the winter solstice. 
}}
</ref> (Note: the Southern Hemisphere lacks a prominent visible analog to [[Polaris | the northern Pole Star]].)  On the contrary, Chinese and Islamic cultures considered south as the proper "top" end for [[map orientation | maps]].<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20160614-maps-have-north-at-the-top-but-it-couldve-been-different|title= Maps have 'north' at the top, but it could've been different|first= Caroline|last= Williams|website= Bbc.com|date= 15 June 2016|access-date= 10 November 2017 | quote = Early Islamic maps favoured south at the top because most of the early Muslim cultures were north of Mecca, so they imagined looking up (south) towards it [...].}}</ref> In the cultures of [[Polynesia]], where navigation played an important role, winds - prevailing local or ancestral - can define [[cardinal point]]s.<ref>
{{cite book
 | last1 = Fornander
 | first1 = Abraham
 | author-link1 = Abraham Fornander
 | last2 = Stokes
 | first2 = John F. G.
 | chapter = Names or cardinal points [...]
 | title = An Account of the Polynesian Race: Its Origins and Migrations, and the Ancient History of the Hawaiian People to the Times of Kamehameha I
 | year = 1878
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=n8UNAAAAQAAJ
 | volume = 1
 | location = London
 | publisher = Trübner & Company
 | publication-date = 1878
 | page = 18
 | access-date = 5 December 2019
 | quote = In the Tonga Islands, ''Hahagi'' means the northern and eastern side of an island, and ''Hihifo'' means the southern and western side. The first is derived from the preposition Hagi, 'up, upward;' the latter from the preposition Hifo, 'down, downward.' In many of the other Polynesian groups the expressions 'up' and 'down' [...] are used with reference to the prevailing trade-winds. One is said to 'go up' when travelling against the wind, and to 'go down' when sailing before it. [...] In New Zealand the north was conventionally called ''Raro'', 'down,' and the south ''Runga'', or 'up.'
}}
</ref>

In [[Western culture]]:
* Maps tend to be drawn for viewing with either true north or magnetic north at the top.
* [[Globe]]s of the earth have the [[North Pole]] at the top, or if the Earth's axis is represented as inclined from vertical (normally by the angle it has relative to the axis of the Earth's orbit), in the top half.
* Maps are usually labelled to indicate which direction on the map corresponds to a direction on the earth,
** usually with a single arrow oriented to the map's representation of true north,
** occasionally with a single arrow oriented to the map's representation of magnetic north, or two arrows oriented to true and magnetic north respectively,
** occasionally with a [[compass rose]], but if so, usually on a map with north at the top and usually with north decorated more prominently than any other compass point.
* "Up" is a metaphor for north. The notion that north should always be "up" and east at the right was established by the Greek astronomer [[Ptolemy]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Jian, Baruch |first=Li, John |date=June 2011 |title=Can you find south using your watch? |journal=Astronomy & Geophysics |volume=52 |issue=3 |pages=3.12–3.14|doi=10.1111/j.1468-4004.2011.52312.x |bibcode=2011A&G....52c..12J |doi-access=free }}</ref> The historian [[Daniel Boorstin]] suggests that perhaps this was because the better-known places in his world were in the northern hemisphere, and on a flat map these were most convenient for study if they were in the upper right-hand corner.<ref>
{{Cite book|title= The Discoverers|author= Daniel Boorstin|year= 1983|page= 98|publisher= Random House/J.M.Dent & Sons}}
</ref>{{qn|date=December 2019}}

North is quite often associated with colder climates because most of the world's populated land at high latitudes is located in the [[Northern Hemisphere]]. The Arctic Circle passes through the [[Arctic Ocean]], [[Norway]], [[Sweden]], [[Finland]], [[Russia]], the [[United States]] ([[Alaska]]), [[Canada]] ([[Yukon]], [[Northwest Territories]] and [[Nunavut]]), [[Denmark]] ([[Greenland]]) and [[Iceland]].