Where is the heart located within the thoracic cavity?

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Recognizing the thoracic compartments helps locate the heart: it is enclosed in the pericardial cavity, a small sac inside the mediastinum of the thorax. The pleural cavities surround the lungs, not the heart; the retroperitoneal space and the peritoneal cavity are in the abdomen, behind and within the peritoneum, respectively. So the heart sits in the pericardial cavity within the mediastinum.