The Blue Marble photograph in its original orientation.
The chance of encountering a student whose favorite school subject is Geography may be quite faint. Nevertheless, memorizing the capitals and the locations of certain countries is fun and impartially pragmatic when it comes to an icebreaker game or a QuizUp challenge. As it happens, maps can certainly be fascinating. In fact, the study and practice of making maps (scientifically known as "Cartography") date back to nearly 6,000 BC.
Primarily, I believe everybody's familiar with the contemporary and "conventional" world map: The northern hemisphere (which comprises approximately all of Europe, North America, Central America and the vast majority of Asia) is up, while the southern hemisphere (which includes Africa, South America, Australia and part of Asia) is down.
The astronomer Claudius Ptolemy was the first to inaugurate the protocol of orienting the north as the top. This convention was also the result of European explorers depending on the North Star as their reference for navigation.
However, as we perceive the earth, it is revealed and also wide known that our planet has a spherical shape, floating in a three dimensional space. So, strictly speaking, implying that the north is up and the south is down is necessarily flawed. This up-and-down-reference attribution grows into a complication when the surface of the earth is projected onto a map.
Parting from this theory came the idea of creating a map representing a different orientation where the southern hemisphere is on top, while the northern hemisphere is at bottom. Maps relying on this orientation are called upside down maps.
Moreover, South-up map orientation can have a deeper effect on people's minds. Psychologically speaking, "above" and "below" may allude to "good" and "bad" respectively, eventually creating a bias towards the northern hemisphere. Therefore, "going south" or "going north" would have a much relevant meaning than the mere geographic location.
And as a matter of fact, upside down maps aren't the only type of underrated maps. There are also rotated maps where Indonesia is in the center while Europe is on the side.
In summary, I'm not saying that reversed maps are better than the conventional ones, but acknowledging all of them is crucial to perceive everything and everyone equally. Not to mention that our education system has managed not only to stereotype intelligence, but to stereotype maps as well.
