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Cardinal directions or cardinal points are the four principal directions or points of the compass in plane.
Four directions are north, east, south and west. Or forward, back, left and right.
The Four Cardinal Directions correspond to the following degrees of a compass: North: 0 (= 360) degrees, East: 90 degrees, South: 180 degrees and West: 270 degrees (see azimuth).
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Germanic origin of names
During the Migration Period, the Germanic names for the cardinal directions entered the Romance languages, where they replaced the Latin names borealis, australis, occidentalis and orientalis. Interestingly, this is one of the very few lasting linguistic impacts that the Germanic tribes had on these languages. (See French language#The Franks)
Five Directions
Traditional Chinese culture and some others view the center as a fifth principal direction. In Asia, each direction is often identified with a color, and geographical or ethnic terms may contain the name of the color instead of the name of the corresponding direction. Ireland Tibet China Color metaphors for race#Central Asia
Six Cardinal Directions
In solid geometry, there are Six Cardinal Directions: north, south, east, west, heaven, and land. Or forward, back, left, right, upward, and downward.
A cube or a common room has six quadrangles, which cross each other at right angles.
Three axises are x-axis (left and right), y-axis (forward and back), and z-axis (upward and downward).
Seven Directions
In various Native American and New Age practices, there are seven primary directions: north, south, east, west, heaven, land, and center (or self, now).
Central Asia
The five cardinal directions were historically identified with colors. This was common to the Central Asian cultural area and was carried west by the westward migration of the Turks. These directional color terms were applied both to geographic features and sometimes to populations as well.
- North: Black
- Heilongjiang "Black Dragon River" province in Northeast China, also the Amur River
- Black Sea: north of Turkey
- Kara-Khitan Khanate
- South: Red
- Red River (Vietnam): south of China
- Red Sea: south of Turkey
- East: Green or Blue (青 "qīng" corresponds to green or blue)
- Qingdao (Tsingtao) "Green Island": a city on the east coast of China
- West: White
- White Sheep Turkmen
- Ak Deniz "White Sea" in Turkish indicates the Sea of Marmara, the Aegean Sea, or the Merranean Sea
- Center: Yellow
- Huangshan "Yellow Mountain" in central China
- Golden Horde: "Central Army" of the Mongols
Non-compass directional systems
Use of the compass directions is common and deeply embedded in European culture, and perhaps even more so in Chinese culture. Some other cultures make greater use of other referents, such as towards the sea vs. towards the mountains (Hawaii, Bali), or upstream and downstream (Yurok, Karok).
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