East and West have always been known to mankind as the places where the sun rises and where the sun sets. Indeed our very word 'east' is derived from the proto Indo-Aryan 'aus-to', which means 'towards the sunrise'. Our obedience to the primacy of north (such as the arrow on the compass and the orientation of our maps) is a more recent shift. It is derived from 'ner' ('down'). All the earliest maps, as drawn by the Chinese and Muslim cartographers, are orientated with south as 'up', just as the Emperor of China always sat on his throne facing south, towards harmony and prosperity.
Barnaby Rogerson,Ā Rogersonās Book of Numbers: The Culture of Numbers from 1001 Nights to the Seven Wonders of the World












