Why is North in the north on maps? Who decided? Is it always that way?

 

I researched left, right and centre, as the saying goes for the answer. North, South, East and West. I thought I read on Wikipedia or somewhere else about the man I had never heard of who established north on maps in Europe. My second search showed that Ptolemy has north on maps in ancient times, and European maps put north in all sorts of places until am copied the older system from elsewhere and much later his version was copied onto printed maps in Europe. 

Then I discovered something fascinating. Ptolemy, a Greek astronomer living in Egypt, put north at the top because he started writing at the top. But also from the top left. 

But why north? Because of the north star - but that was done by people living in the south, down under.  Maps were printed with the west at the top by another culture which made their city the most important place in the universe - but why put north at the top and not in the centre. 

China

The Chinese call their country centre, a square with a line through it. I learned that from looking at signposts in Hong Kong.

Sailors, North and South

Another theory goes that sailors were following the stars. 

Or South was at the top of the page, because in Egypt the Nile flows north to the Mediterranean sea.

Mecca and Jerusalem

Then the Arabs lived north of Mecca which was in the south. (But graves of Muslims and Jews in Europe face East towards the holy lands and places, Jerusalem and Mecca.)

Vienna, Austria

We drove around Vienna in Austria arguing about whether to go left or right because my husband was driving, watching the signposts, but I was reading the nap which had south at the bottom of the page following ...

The north pole is at the north. But ...

"You could turn the piece of paper round," my husband suggested. 

 I retorted, "But then the writing is upside down. I could stand on my hands and read it that way. Or place a book on a lazy Susan." 

It is a convention. Sometimes. But not always.

The English write North, South, East and West starting with capital letters. 

Swedish North is north

The Swedish language does not use capital letters. You just have to go with the flow.

Australia

And don't get me started on the way the water runs down the plughole in the bath in Australia. 

Or Christmas in June.

Useful Websites

https://www.geospatialworld.net/blogs/why-maps-point-north-on-top/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North

https://thepointsguy.com/2017/07/travel-myths-backwards-water/

A new bust of footballer Ronaldo, and Sculpture of Fishermen At Sea to See

Map of Portuguese speaking Madeira in the Atlantic from Wikipedia. Note the proximity to Portugal, Gibraltar on the tip of Spain, and the coast of Morocco.

Problem - What To See and Where in Madeira?
Madeira used to be one of the world's dangerous airports, they say, until the runway was built out into the sea on stilts. Now you can arrive with your mind on the tourist sites you plan to see.

Cristiano Ronaldo Airport, Madeira. Photo by Peter Forster, from Flickr via Wikipedia.

1 Cristiano Ronaldo Bust At The Airport
The first site for visitors to look for on arriving at the Cristiano Ronaldo International Airport is the bust of the footballer, Cristiano Ronaldo, created by sculptor Emanuel Santos when the airport was renamed.

When the sculpture was unveiled in 2017, although Cristiano himself liked it, many people on the internet did not. Frankly, I think it's very good. But then I am a caricaturist. I like the slight exaggeration which captures a character, whether or not it is flattering, it is memorable. The twisted mouth, the lopsided smile. Excellent.

Emanuel and Jesus
The sculptor, Emanual Santos, was very hurt by the criticism, although he came up with a wonderful motivational line: 'You can't please everyone. Even Jesus didn't please everyone.'

However, March 29, 2018, Emanuel Santos revealed his new, more serious face of Cristiano.

2 Fishermen Sculpture in Caniçal
I was very heartened to read that he was commissioned to create a sculpture of fisherman, two fishermen in a boat with oars, delightful white, in his home village of Caniçal. (It is pronounced canny Sal, like a canny girl called Sally.) The name comes from the Portuguese for fishing lines, and the area is now the main cargo port.

Portuguese Spelling And Pronunciation
That sign under the c turns it into an s sound, which is what it looks like. We are all familiar with words using the c is an s sound: place, palace police, pronounce.

Think of canister. You can see that the first letter of the name is c pronounced like a hard c like k.

The c with the cedilla, is easy to reproduce. ç (Type it and hold down the c key and tap the number one to get it printed in a text).

The capital of Madeira, Funchal, is on the south coast. Caniçal is anti-clockwise up the coast of the island.

3 CR7 Museum of football, Funchal, Madeira
CR stands for Cristiano Ronaldo.

Cristiano Ronaldo's CR7 Museum in Funchal, Madeira. Photo from Wikipedia author AbbyM.

Another photo opportunity with a full-size statue. It costs 5 Euros to go inside plus another 5 Euros for a photo with a Ronaldo mock-up. What do you see? Tropies, videos of scoring goals, fan letters, news of his donations, enough to entertain football fans and others. 

4 Wine Museum
Wine museum, winery and wine tour.

5 Cable car
Goes up to Monte. Monte like mountain, easy to remember. From there another cable car takes you to the botanical gardens. If you like that sort of thing. I prefer my feet on the ground.

6 Walks
Around town and across the island. See in Funchal on Avenido Zarco (Zarco Avenue) the statue of the man who discovered Madeira and was its first governor.

Of Passing Interest
You might pass the outside of the synagogue or the door of the cemetery. The synagogue is disused due to declining population of Jews. Zero.

Photo from Wikipedia.

So is the cemetery. Last used when the last Jew on the island died in 1967.

Photo from Wikipedia.

Christopher Columbus house
You might wonder why everybody needing better-paid employment didn't leave Madeira and go East to Spain and Morocco or west to America. One famous person did Christopher Columbus. It must be admitted that Christopher Columbus seems to have been born and died all over the place. So Madeira can lay claim to ancient and modern heroes, Christopher Columbus, explorer, and Cristiano Ronaldo, footballer.

I found a Jewish website which taught me about the geography and history of Madeira. Jews went west to Madeira from Gibraltar and Morocco. Madeira is in the ocean west of Morocco, and Gibraltar which points from Spain south to Morocco.

Food and Drink
Food is fish, fish, and more fish.
Madeira wine.
Passionfruit cocktail.

Souvenirs and Shopping
Madeira wine.

Madeira Wine Bottles at a wine tasting in England at Eton Vintners, Windsor and Eton. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Getting To Madeira
TAP Portugal (Star Alliance with Singapore Airlines, Lufthansa and others) goes to and from Madeira (you have to type in Funchal FNC, Portugal).  You can go from New York or Brasil and other American continent airports, from London, Gatwick (LGW) or Portugal and other European destinations. You can also have a stopover in Portugal at Lisbon or Oporto.

(Other airlines include British Airways and some budget airlines.)

Hotels
The five-star Reid hotel where Winston Churchill stayed is on the top with an outdoor pool and sloping gardens. Winston Churchill stayed here. So did Bernard Shaw an several other famous people.

The rival luxury hotel is down by the sea.

Useful websites
Wikipedia Madeira
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madeira

Madeira Official Tourist Board Site
http://www.visitmadeira.pt/en-gb/homepage

Coniçal
Cristiano Ronaldo, footballer
Emanual Santos, sculptor
TripAdvisor

BBC article on Ronaldo statue
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-39442098

Where Next? Cardiff, Wales - Emanuel Santos Bust
If you'd like to see another footballer's bust by Emanuel Santos, there's one outside Cardiff Stadium, of Gareth Bale, who plays for the Welsh team and Real Madrid (meaning not real Madrid but royal Madrid). The sculpture shows Gareth Bale's distinctive beard, moustache and topknot.

If you are not planning to visit Cardiff, at least when travelling to and through Wales you can think about it.  You see the stadium as the GWR train from Paddington goes west through Wales.

Cardiff Stadium, from the window of the GWR (Great Western Railway) train. 

https://ftw.usatoday.com/2017/05/gareth-bale-statue-emanuel-santos-cristiano-ronaldo-real-madrid

A detailed description of the life, problems and persistence of the sculptor Emanuel Santos.
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2766946-a-year-after-internet-infamy-ronaldo-sculptor-gets-another-shot
Madeira wines and bottle labels:
http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/madeira.html

http://www.cntraveller.com/article/travel-guide-madeira 
Mentions Columbus's house on Porto Santa, a 20-minute flight or two and a half hours by catamaran.

For a great photo of Emanuel Santos's sculpture of fisherman in a boat, see:

https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/cristiano-ronaldo-bust-artist/

Travelling to Madeira? Check out Tripadvisor.
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g189167-d5993654-Reviews-CR7_Museum-Funchal_Madeira_Madeira_Islands.html
You can check out museums, landmarks, hotels and get ads for tours.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. I have several posts on learning Portuguese and on Madeira. Please bookmark and share links to your favourite posts.