Definition of Cardinal Points

So that we can locate ourselves on a plane or to know which direction we should take, it is convenient to handle some reference points, the cardinal points. There are four cardinal points: north, south, east and west (and they also have a series of intermediate points (northeast, northwest, southeast and southwest). This system of location in physical space takes as a reference the place where the Sun rises, the east.

How to locate the cardinal points and their representation

If we want to locate the position of a cardinal point, we can position ourselves in such a way that the arm right point to the place where the sun rises. From this data, we already know where the opposite side is (the west) and also the other two coordinates, the south at our back and the north in front.

The cardinal points in history

In the ancient world the movement of the Earth, but the navigators took one direction or another depending on the direction of the wind or the position of the stars. However, the key element for orientation was the position of the Sun at sunrise.

The knowledge of the cardinal points has been key to the history of the humanity, especially for maritime navigation. From an instrumental point of view, the reference of the cardinal points began to be used by the Arab navigators around the year 1000 of our era and in the fourteenth century it had already spread among the great navigators.

The technical advance that definitely allowed the location in physical space was the compass. It should be noted that the cardinal points served as a reference, but during cloudy days and nights these references were not useful, since clouds can prevent the observation of the position of the Sun and the pole star (the pole star is the reference of the geographic north).

When the use of the compass spread among navigators in the 13th century, almost complete mastery of the Geographical coordinates. The definitive step for the exact location of the cardinal points came with a new technology, the astrolabe.

The cardinal points and biblical symbolism

The cardinal points have a dimension symbolic that already appears in the Bible. Thus, in the book From Genesis, the Garden of Eden was in the east (the east) and was an idyllic place and, on the contrary, the west (the west) symbolizes the world of darkness. Along the same lines, in the Bible the north symbolizes eternity and the south represents everything negative because to the south of Israel is the desert.

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