Arguments about Swiss maps

It pains me to see the warm vineyards and villages on the sunny side of the main Valais valley on the north side of Lake Geneva and the heavily-farmed sunny slopes of the north side of the Anterior Rhine Valley in the shade, while the wooded slopes on the shady side are bathed in blazing sunlight.

From the Swiss National Museum.

A somewhat trivial topic: Swiss relief maps show the sunlight as coming from the Northwest when in real life it comes most often from the South. The article is beautifully rendered. Something about it transports me to summertime in the Alps.

The culprit? Most artists draw with their right hands and write from left to right and so European maps tend to show shade on the right-hand side of the map. Via The Browser.

2024-01-17