Learn Polish: Gdańsk leży na północy Polski. - Gdansk lies in the north of Poland.

In Polish, cities and geographical features do not just exist somewhere, they lie there. While you can sometimes use być (to be) or znajdować się (to be located), using leżeć (to lie) is the most natural and common way to describe where a place is located on a map.

Why do we use na instead of w for in the north?

For compass directions like north (północ), south (południe), east (wschód), and west (zachód), Polish always uses the preposition na rather than w. You can think of it as saying a city is located on the north.

The word for north is północ. Why does it change to północy here?

The preposition na used for a location requires the Locative case. Even though północ ends in a consonant, it is a feminine noun. Feminine nouns that end in a consonant typically take the ending -y or -i in the Locative case, making it na północy.

Wait, doesn't północ mean midnight?