Take a ride down the metro line that runs southwestward from the centre of Caracas, and it is easy to see why.
The Artibonite River the island's longest, approximately 175 miles (280 km) long rises in the western Dominican Republic in the Cordillera Central and follows a southwestward course along the border with Haiti.
The mountainous escarpment continues southwestward, dividing Lesotho from the Eastern Cape province, where it runs westward across Eastern Cape at lesser elevations of 5,000 to 8,000 feet (1,500 to 2,400 metres) and is known as the Stormberg.
It flows southwestward to the city of Cuyahoga Falls (where its falls were eliminated by a series of dams) on the northern edge of Akron; there it drops into a large, deep valley and turns sharply northward.
The Outer Banks form a bowlike arc that curves southeastward to Cape Hatteras which is about 30 miles (50 km) from the mainland and then southwestward to Cape Lookout.
With the monsoon's reversal to the northeast in September, the current begins to weaken until, in the winter, it disappears entirely, to be replaced by a slow southwestward drift.
Most urban settlements have grown along the road that runs from Kabul southwestward to Kandahār, then northwest to Herāt, northeast to Mazār-e Sharīf, and southeast back to Kabul.
From this point the Volga becomes a mighty river, which, save for a sharp loop at the Samara Bend, flows southwestward along the foot of the Volga Hills in the direction of Volgograd.
The coastal watershed is drained by the Kouilou River, which flows southwestward for about 450 miles (725 km) from its source in the plateau region to Kayes, where it empties into the Atlantic.
In 840 this state was overrun by the Kyrgyz, however, and the Uighurs migrated southwestward to the area around the Tien (Tian) Shan ("Celestial Mountains").
Frémont followed the North Platte River into Wyoming, went up the Sweetwater River to the south end of the Wind River Range South Passs), and thence traveled southwestward into Utah.
