The airport is located 13 kilometers north of central Zürich.

[sadra1400]

Why do we need "from" in the first sentence but not the second?
Are there any differences between the following two sentences?

The airport is located 13 kilometers from the city of Zurich.
The airport is located 13 kilometers north of central Zürich.

 

[emsr2d2]

Why did you change "the city of Zurich" to "central Zürich"? If you're going to ask us why you need "from" in the first sentence, you need to make sure the rest of the sentence is exactly the same.

 

[sadra1400]

Why did you change "the city of Zurich" to "central Zürich"? If you're going to ask us why you need "from" in the first sentence, you need to make sure the rest of the sentence is exactly the same.

The airport is located 13 kilometers from north of central Zürich. (Wrong. Why?)
The airport is located 13 kilometers north of central Zürich.

 

[emsr2d2]

The first sentence doesn't work at all. You can't be a distance "from north of" anywhere. "North of Zürich" isn't a specific location so you can't measure 13 kilometres from it.

"The airport is located 13 kilometres from central Zürich" tells us how far away from the absolute centre of Zurich the airport is, but it doesn't tell us in which direction we need to travel to reach the airport.

"The airport is located 13 kilometres north of central Zürich" tells us not only the distance but also the direction. We now know that if we leave central Zürich and travel north for 13 kilometres, we will reach the airport.