5 of the World’s Most Interesting Directional Systems

Imagine telling someone there’s an ant on their southeast leg or giving directions by dancing a figure-eight. While these scenarios might sound absurd, they’re actually examples of real navigational systems used around the world. In an age where we’re increasingly reliant on GPS and smartphone maps, it’s easy to forget that humans (and other species) have been finding their way for millennia using incredibly diverse and often ingenious methods. Let’s take a journey through the world of guiding systems—no satellite signal required.

1. The Bees’ Waggle Dance
2. Bali’s Mountain–Sea Axis
3. The Guugu Yimithirr’s Absolute Direction
4. Southern Ontario’s Lake-Oriented “North–South”
5. The Polynesian Star Compass

1. The Bees’ Waggle Dance

Honeybees have perfected a navigation system that puts us and our smartphones to shame. When a forager bee discovers a prime food source, it returns to the pitch-dark interior of the hive and performs a “waggle dance,” wiggling its abdomen from side to side while vibrating its wings. The hive becomes a living map, and the bee a dancing cartographer. The dance—which was first decoded by Karl von Frisch in the 1940s—provides directions relative to the position of the hive.

Here’s the kicker: The angle of the dance relative to vertical indicates the direction of the food source in relation to the sun, while the duration of the central run signals the distance. It’s as if the bee is drawing a map with its body. Even more impressive, bees adjust their dances to account for the sun’s movement over time, even on overcast days—demonstrating an understanding of celestial mechanics that would make Galileo proud. Move the hive, though, and they will need some time to reorient themselves.

2. Bali’s Mountain–Sea Axis

In Bali, you won't hear locals talking about cardinal directions like north and south. Instead, their world revolves around a geocentric directional system—one based on topography and landmarks. The primary directions are kaja (towards the mountain, typically the central volcano Gunung Agung) and kelod (towards the sea). This system is rounded out with kauh (clockwise around the shore) and kangin (counterclockwise).

The historical roots of this directional system lie in the flow of water through Bali's terraced rice paddies. Water, essential for rice cultivation, naturally flows from the mountainous regions towards the sea. This geographical reality has shaped not only agricultural practices but also the Balinese perception of space and direction.

Balinese homes and temples are also oriented with this system. The most sacred area, utama, of the home is located in the kaja-kangin (mountain-east) direction, where the family temple is typically placed. The least sacred area, nista, is in the kelod-kauh (sea-west) direction, often housing the toilet and animal pens.

3. The Guugu Yimithirr’s Absolute Direction

The Guugu Yimithirr of northern Queensland, Australia, are so reliant on cardinal directions that their language lacks words for left and right. Instead, they use north, south, east, and west for everything, from describing the location of a nearby object to giving complex directions across long distances.

For instance, a Guugu Yimithirr speaker might say, “There’s an ant on your southeast leg” instead of “There’s an ant on your left leg.” Or when asking someone to move in a certain direction, they might say, “Can you move a bit to the north-northeast?” rather than “Can you move a bit to your left?” This extends to larger-scale directions too. To describe a journey, they might say, “We traveled north for two days, then northwest for another day, crossing two rivers that flowed southwest.”

Speakers maintain a constant awareness of cardinal directions, developing an internal compass that’s always on. Research suggests this unique feature enhances their spatial memory and navigation skills. In experiments, Guugu Yimithirr speakers have shown an uncanny ability to point accurately to distant locations, even in unfamiliar environments or inside buildings, showcasing how deeply this directional thinking is ingrained in their cognitive processes.

4. Southern Ontario’s Lake-Oriented “North–South”

To the north of Lake Ontario, locals have thrown conventional compass directions out the window in favor of a system that would make cartographers scratch their heads:  South often means “towards the lake,” even when you’re actually heading more east than south. This quirky orientation is most noticeable on major roads like Highway 410, which runs “north–south” in local parlance but actually travels northwest-southeast on a map.

Residents have internalized this lake-based orientation so deeply that it affects their perception of nearby cities. Many who live in Mississauga describe Brampton as being northeast of their city, based on the drive “east” to Highway 410 “northbound,” which deposits them in Brampton. In reality, Brampton lies northwest of Mississauga—a fact that often surprises locals (including the author of this piece). This quirky sense of direction isn’t unique to Mississauga; similar systems exist around Lake Ontario. In New York City and Montreal, for instance, residents orient themselves based on the layout of their local rivers rather than true compass directions.

5. The Polynesian Star Compass

For Polynesian navigators, the stars became the sea, and the sea became their road. At the heart of traditional Polynesian navigation is the star compass, a mental construct that divides the horizon into 32 houses, each associated with the rising or setting point of a particular celestial body. This map of the heavens allowed navigators to maintain their course across thousands of miles of open ocean in an age long before the invention of modern instruments.

But stars were just the beginning. As anthropologist Wade Davis has documented, Polynesian wayfinders read a complex set of oceanic signs: the behavior of sea life, the color of the sea and sky, even the taste of the water. They could detect the presence of distant atolls by observing how cloud formations and wave patterns changed due to unseen islands and feel the way the ocean swells were reflected or refracted by distant land masses, sensing islands beyond the horizon. This holistic system of navigation, passed down through generations, enabled Polynesians to undertake deliberate two-way voyages across the vast Pacific, populating islands scattered across an area of 10 million square miles.

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