The Four Cardinal Neighbors: North, South, East, West

For any given location on a grid or map, its four cardinal neighbors are:

• North: The adjacent cell/region directly toward the North Pole (increasing latitude).
• South: Directly toward the South Pole (decreasing latitude).
• East: Directly toward sunrise / increasing longitude.
• West: Directly toward sunset / decreasing longitude.

In Grid Systems

• Square grid (von Neumann neighborhood): 4 neighbors (N, S, E, W).
• Hex grid: 6 neighbors.
• Moore neighborhood (square + diagonals): 8 neighbors.

In Geography

Country A's "neighbor to the north" = country sharing its northern border. Context defines scale (plot, city, nation, pixel).

Cardinal directions are the universal first-order spatial relation.