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The famous photo of Earth from Apollo 17 (Blue Marble) originally had the south pole at the top; however, it was turned upside-down to fit the traditional stereotype^{[citation needed]}

A reversed map, also known as an Upside-Down map or South-Up map, is a world map that generally shows Australia and New Zealand at the top of the map instead of the bottom. Indonesia is placed in the center while Europe and the Americas are placed to the sides, although there are reversed maps centred on the Prime Meridian.^{[citation needed]} Image File history File links Unbalanced_scales. ... Image File history File links Reverse_projection. ... Image File history File links Apollo17WorldReversed. ... Image File history File links Apollo17WorldReversed. ... Apollo 17 was the eleventh manned space mission in the NASA Apollo program and was the sixth and last manned mission to date to land on the Moon. ... The Blue Marble is a famous photograph of the Earth taken on 7 December 1972 by the crew of the Apollo 17 spacecraft at a distance of about 45,000 kilometers or about 28,000 miles. ... Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Category:World_maps Physical world map (2004) with country borders and capitals--click for large, 2 MB version A world map is a map of the surface of the Earth, which may be made using any of a number of different map projections. ... World map showing Europe Political map Europe is one of the seven traditional continents of Earth; the term continent here referring to a cultural and political distinction, rather than a physiographic one, thus leading to various perspectives about Europes precise borders. ... World map showing the Americas America or the Americas are the lands of the Western hemisphere consisting of the continents of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions. ... Location of the Prime Meridian Prime Meridian in Greenwich The Prime Meridian, also known as the International Meridian or Greenwich Meridian, is the meridian (line of longitude) passing through the Royal Greenwich Observatory, Greenwich, England — it is the meridian at which longitude is 0 degrees. ...

Reversed maps are popular in Australia, New Zealand and other southern hemisphere countries. ^{[citation needed]} They are also becoming popular in other parts of the world as tools for teaching critical thinking. ^{[citation needed]} Southern Hemisphere The Southern Hemisphere is the half of a planets surface (or celestial sphere) that is south of the equator (the word hemisphere literally means half ball). On Earth it contains five continents (Antarctica, Australia, most of South America, parts of Africa, and Asia) as well as four...

The position of North at the top of maps is somewhat arbitrary; indeed there are many maps with non-standard orientation, such as Medieval maps, polar maps, and Dymaxion maps. The convention that North is at the top (and East at the right) on most modern maps was established by the astronomer Ptolemy [1] and was widely adopted by other cartographers. Physical map of the Earth. ... The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Unfolded Dymaxion map with nearly-contiguous land masses. ... An astronomer or astrophysicist is a scientist whose area of research is astronomy or astrophysics. ... An artists rendition of Claudius Ptolemaeus This article is about the geographer and astronomer Ptolemy. ... Cartography is the study of map making and cartographers are map makers. ...

See also

• Map projection
• The Wizard of New Zealand
• North-South divide

The Mercator projection shows courses of constant bearing as straight lines. ... The Wizard of New Zealand The Wizard of New Zealand is also the Archwizard of Canterbury, a living work of art at the National Gallery of Victoria and the Robert MacDougall Art Gallery, and Cosmologer at the University of Melbourne. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

External links

• interactive online "upside down world map"
• A collection of world maps viewed from a reversed perspective
• The World Turned Upside Down by Katy Kramer
• The Northern Hemisphere
• On Maps, why is north always up?
• Google Answers
• Maps biased towards north (PDF)
• Yahoo answers