GEOGRAPHICAL COORDINATES

Imagine you want to travel by ship to the Canary Islands. First, you need to locate these islands on a map. Then you need to find their cardinal points. The principal cardinal points are north, south, east and west. There are other points between these: northeast, southeast and southwest.
Next, you need to know the exact location of the Canary Islands on a globe. To do this, you use geographical coordinates. These are a set of imaginary horizontal and vertical lines that help you to locate geographical locations.
The horizontal lines are called parallels because they are parallel to the Equator. The vertical lines are called meridians and go from pole to pole. We use parallels and meridians to determine the latitude and longitude of a place.
Latitude is the distance between any point and the Equator. Points to the north of the Equator are latitude north and points to the south are latitude south.
Longitude is the distance between any point on Earth and the Greenwich Meridian. Greenwich is a town in the United Kingdom. Points to the east of Greenwich are longitude east and points to the west are longitude west.