Hemispheres of the Earth in geography and cartography refer to any bipartite division of the globe into a hemisphere (from Ancient Greek ἡμισφαίριον hēmisphairion meaning “half of a sphere”) The most common such divisions are by latitudinal or longitudinal markers: East-West Eastern Hemisphere, the half that is east of the prime meridian and west of 180° longitude Western Hemisphere, the half that lies west of the prime meridian and east of 180° longitude North-South Northern Hemisphere, the half that is north of the equator Southern Hemisphere, the half that lies south of the equator The East-West division can also be seen in a cultural sense — the cultural hemispheres.
