Cardinal direction

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"Cardinal point" redirects here. For other uses, see Cardinal point (disambiguation).
A compass rose showing the four cardinal directions, the four ordinal directions, plus eight further divisions.

The four cardinal directions or cardinal points are the directions of north, east, south, and west, commonly denoted by their initials: N, E, S, W. East and west are at right angles to north and south, with east being in the clockwise direction of rotation from north and west being directly opposite east. Intermediate points between the four cardinal directions form the points of the compass. The intermediate (intercardinal, or ordinal) directions are northeast (NE), southeast (SE), southwest (SW), and northwest (NW). Further, the intermediate direction of every set of intercardinal and cardinal direction is called a secondary-intercardinal direction, the eight shortest points in the compass rose to the right, i.e. NNE, ENE, ESE, and so on.

Locating the directions[edit]

Direction versus bearing[edit]



Magnetic compass[edit]

Main article: Compass

The Earth has a magnetic field which is approximately aligned with its axis of rotation. A magnetic compass is a device that uses this field to determine the cardinal directions. Magnetic compasses are extremely widely used, but only moderately accurate.

The Sun[edit]

The position of the Sun in the sky can be used for orientation if the general time of day is known. In the morning, the Sun rises roughly in the east (due east only on the equinoxes) and tracks upwards. In the evening it sets in the west, again roughly and only due west exactly on the equinoxes. In the middle of the day it is to the south for viewers in the Northern Hemisphere, who live north of the Tropic of Cancer, and the north for those in the Southern Hemisphere, who live south of the Tropic of Capricorn. This method works less well closer to the equator (i.e. between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn) since, in the northern hemisphere, the sun may be directly overhead or even to the north in summer. Conversely, at low latitudes in the southern hemisphere the sun may be to the south of the observer in summer. In these locations, one needs first to determine whether the sun is moving from east to west through north or south by watching its movements—left to right means it is going through south while right to left means it is going through north; or one can watch the sun's shadows. If they move clockwise, the sun will be in the south at midday, and if they move anticlockwise, then the sun will be in the north at midday.


A more accurate fix can be made if the time of year and approximate latitude are factored in. The amount that the sun appears to be either north or south depends on both the time of year and latitude of the observer. Knowing these will enable the observer to be more precise when determining the cardinal directions from the sun's position, particularly in the early morning or late afternoon.

Watch face[edit]

Specialized 24-hour watch with compass card dial




The photograph shows a specialized 24-hour watch designed for finding directions using the Sun in the northern hemisphere. With the watch set to indicate local time, the hour hand is pointed directly at the Sun. North is then indicated by the local midnight position.







While observers in the Northern hemisphere can use the star Polaris to determine the Northern celestial pole, there is no corresponding "southern pole star". However an adequate substitute is to use the constellation Crux (The Southern Cross). The southern celestial pole lies at the intersection of (a) the line along the long axis of crux (i.e. through Alpha Crucis and Gamma Crucis) and (b) a line perpendicularly bisecting the line joining the "Pointers" (Alpha Centauri and Beta Centauri).

Inertial navigation[edit]

At the very end of the 19th century, to avoid the need to wait for fair weather at night to precisely verify one's alignment with true north, the gyrocompass was developed for ship use in scenarios where the magnetic compass simply wasn't good enough. It has the further advantages of immunity to interference by stray magnetic fields, and not depending on Earth's magnetic field at all. Its major disadvantage is that it depends on technology that many individuals might find too expensive to justify outside the context of a large commercial or military operation. It also requires a continuous power supply for its motors, and that it be allowed to sit in one location for a period of time while it properly aligns itself.

Satellite navigation[edit]


Additional points[edit]


  • North (N): 0° = 360°
  • East (E): 90°
  • South (S): 180°
  • West (W): 270°



These 8 words have been further compounded, resulting in a total of 16 named (and numbered) points evenly spaced around the compass.

Usefulness of cardinal points[edit]



The direction of travel required to reach the intended destination is called the bearing. Since the real world presents numerous obstacles, a person must adjust his or her heading accordingly. Upon moving forward, the bearing will change so that it always points at the destination, thereby giving clues as to which way to turn. When travelling, it is often easier to work out where the next turn is, and whether to turn left or right, when the direction of travel is always up.

Beyond geography[edit]





Germanic origin of names[edit]


  • east (*aus-t-) from the word for dawn. The proto-Indo-European form is *austo-s from the root is *aues- 'shine (red)'.[6] See Ēostre.
  • south (*sunþ-), derived from proto-Indo-European *sú-n-to-s from the root *seu- 'seethe, boil'.[7] 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)',[8] itself a form of *aues-.[9] Cognate with the root are the Latin words vesper and Vesta and the Ancient Greek Hestia, Hesperus and Hesperides.

The colors in world cultures of the cardinal directions[edit]

Europe N E S W C Source
Slavic [10]

Many cultures not descended from European traditions use cardinal directions, but have a number other than four. Typically, a “center” direction is added, for a total of five. Rather than the Western use of direction letters, properties such as colors are often associated with the various cardinal directions—these are typically the natural colors of human perception rather than optical primary colors. Some examples are shown here. In many regions of the world, prevalent winds change direction seasonally, and consequently many cultures associate specific named winds with cardinal and ordinal directions. The classical Greeks personified these winds as Anemoi. When boxing the compass into intercardinal subdirections, each corresponds to one of the directional winds into the Mediterranean Sea (for example, south-east is linked to Scirocco, the wind from the Sahara).

Arabic language[edit]

Countries where Arabic is used refer to the cardinal directions as Ash Shamaliyah (N), Al Gharbiyah (W), Ash Sharqiyah (E) and Al Janobiyah (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, Portugal and Axarquía, Spain).

Far East[edit]

Asia N E S W C Source
China [11][12]
Ainu [13][14]
Turkic [13]
Kalmyks [15]
Tibet [13]

Dynastic Chinese culture and some other Central Asian cultures view the center as a fifth principal direction hence the English translated term "Five Cardinal Points". Where it is different than the west, is that the term is used as a foundation for I Ching, the Wu Xing and the five naked-eye planets.

In traditional Chinese astronomy, the zodiacal belt is divided into the four constellation groups corresponding to the four cardinal directions.




South: Red; Summer; Fire

Red River (Asia): south of China
Red Croatia
Red Ruthenia

West: White; Autumn; Metal

White Sheep Turkmen
Akdeniz, meaning White Sea: Mediterranean Sea in Turkish
Belarus, meaning White Rus' or White Ruthenia
White Serbia
White Croatia

North: Black; Winter; Water

Black Sea: north of Anatolia
Black Ruthenia

Center: Yellow; Earth

Huangshan "Yellow Mountain" in central China
Golden Horde: "Central Army" of the Mongols


America N E S W C Source
Apache [16]
Aztec [17][18][19]
Cherokee [13][20]
Lakota [13]
Mayan [13][17]
Navajo [13][16]
Pueblo [13][20]
Sioux [13]
Tarascan [21]

In Mesoamerica and North America, many traditional indigenous cosmologies include four cardinal directions and a center. Each direction was associated with a color, which varied between groups but which generally corresponded to the hues of corn (green, black, red, white, and yellow). In some cases, e.g., many of the Puebloan peoples of the Southwestern United States, the four named 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.[22][23] There seems to be no “preferred” way of assigning these colors; as shown in the table, great variety in color symbolism occurs even among cultures that are close neighbors geographically.


Some indigenous Australians have cardinal directions deeply embedded in their culture. For example, the Warlpiri people have a cultural philosophy deeply connected to the four cardinal directions[24] and the Guugu Yimithirr people use cardinal directions rather than relative direction even when indicating the position of an object close to their body (see Use of cardinal direction instead of relative direction).

The precise direction of the cardinal points appear to have been important to some Aboriginal cultures (see aboriginal stone arrangements).


Unique (non-compound) names of ordinal directions[edit]

In some languages, such as Finnish, Estonian and Breton, the ordinal 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 Finnish those are koillinen (northeast), kaakko (southeast), lounas (southwest), and luode (northwest). Compare with the non-compound names used for the numbers 11–19 in English (eleven, rather than *ten-one) and special names for one and a half and two and a half in Hindi. 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 ordinal directions (such as tō-nan for 東南, southeast, lit. "east-south"). In the Malay language, 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. However, southeast has a special word: tenggara.


Non-compass directional systems[edit]


See also[edit]




  2. ^ Rigge, W. F. "Partial eclipse of the moon, 1918, June 24". Popular Astronomy 26: 373. Bibcode:1918PA.....26..373R. rigge1918 
  3. ^ Meadows, Peter; meadows. "Solar Observing: Parallactic Angle". Retrieved 2013-11-15. 
  5. ^ entries 765-66 of the Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch
  6. ^ entries 86-7 of the Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch
  7. ^ entries 914-15 of the Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch
  8. ^ entries 1173 of the Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch
  9. ^ entries 86-7 of the Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch
  10. ^ Ukrainian Soviet Encyclopedic dictionary, Kiev, 1987.
  11. ^ a b "Cardinal colors in Chinese tradition". Retrieved 2007-02-17. 
  12. ^ a b "Chinese Cosmogony". Retrieved 2007-02-17. 
  13. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Colors of the Four Directions". Retrieved 2010-05-16. 
  14. ^ "Two Studies of Color". Retrieved 2008-03-14. In Ainu... siwnin means both 'yellow' and 'blue' and hu means 'green' and 'red' 
  16. ^ a b "Symbolism of Color". Retrieved 2007-02-17. 
  17. ^ a b "Aztec Calendar and Colors". Retrieved 2007-02-17. 
  18. ^ "The Aztec Gateway". Retrieved 2007-02-17. 
  19. ^ "Cosmología Azteca". Retrieved 2011-12-01. 
  20. ^ a b "Native American Quotes & Proverbs". Retrieved 2007-02-17. 
  21. ^ "Tariacuri's Legacy The Prehispanic Tarascan State". Retrieved 2010-11-22. 
  23. ^ Curtis, Edward S. (1922), Hodge, Frederick Webb, ed., The Hopi, The North American Indian 12, Norwood, Mass.: The Plimpton Press, p. 246, retrieved 23 Aug 2014, Hopi orientation corresponds only approximately with ours, their cardinal points being marked by the solstitial rising and setting points of the sun.... Their cardinal points therefore are not mutually equidistant on the horizon and agree roughly with our semi-cardinal points. 
  24. ^ ``Ngurra-kurlu: A way of working with Warlpiri people Pawu-Kurlpurlurnu WJ, Holmes M and Box L. 2008, Desert Knowledge CRC Report 41, Alice Springs