The two main ways are based on geographical landmarks (west is towards the ocean, south is towards the desert, north is downriver, etc.) and the other is based

The two main ways are based on geographical landmarks (west is towards the ocean, south is towards the desert, north is downriver, etc.) and the other is based on the sun/moon. East is the direction the sun/moon rises and west is the direction the sun/moon sets. One of the fascinating things I learned about antiquity is they would often orient their maps so east (the direction of the rising sun) was at the top of the map. They didn’t have magnetic compasses so there wasn’t anything special about north to cause them to orient their maps in that direction.