# south (direction)

the side of a place that is down in the usual map arrangement of space

- Computed level: L13 (depth in the emergence graph, not abstraction)
- Status: review  ·  Domain: everyday  ·  Arena: lexicon_entry

## Emergence
**Emerges from:** [side](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-side.surface), [arrangement](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-arrangement.spatial), [map](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-map.spatial), [space](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-space.extent), [usual](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-usual.common)

**Through:** When a side of a place is identified as the down-facing side in the common map arrangement of space, the concept of south emerges.

**Novel properties:**
- directional orientation
- conventional spatial reference
- relative positional identity

## Examples
- In Beijing’s Forbidden City, the main halls face south to honor solar warmth, a practice in Ming Dynasty urban design. *(architecture)*
- Australia’s national highway signs mark 'south' based on the standard orientation of official topographic maps published by Geoscience Australia. *(geography)*
- During the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, rescue teams used GPS coordinates to determine that the epicenter was 80 km west-northwest of Chengdu. *(disaster_response)*

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*Canonical: https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-south.direction*  
*Structured data: https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-south.direction.json*  
*Every definition provably resolves to space, time, energy and pattern.*