Qibla Direction Finder

Why Does the Qibla Direction Matter?

Five times a day, roughly 2 billion Muslims around the world face the same point on Earth — the Kaaba in Makkah. It's one of the most striking acts of unity in any religion. The command comes directly from the Quran: "Turn your face towards al-Masjid al-Haram. Wherever you may be, turn your faces towards it" (Surah Al-Baqarah 2:144).

Facing the Qibla is a condition for the validity of prayer in all four schools of Islamic jurisprudence (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i, and Hanbali). You don't need to align with surgical precision — a reasonable effort to face the right direction is sufficient — but you do need to make that effort. That's where tools like this come in, especially when you're travelling or in an unfamiliar place.

Qibla Directions from Major Cities

The Qibla bearing varies dramatically depending on where you are. Here are approximate bearings from major cities:

The Maths Behind the Qibla

The Qibla direction is calculated using the great-circle bearing formula from spherical trigonometry. It's the same maths pilots use to plot the shortest flight path between two points on a globe. The formula takes your latitude and longitude, compares them to the Kaaba's coordinates (21.4225°N, 39.8262°E), and produces a bearing in degrees from true north.

This is why the Qibla from London points southeast (~119°) rather than due east. On a flat map, Makkah looks directly east of London. But on a globe, the shortest path curves through southeastern Europe and the Mediterranean. If you've ever seen a flight path from London to Jeddah on an in-flight map, you'll notice it doesn't go straight east — it arcs south through Turkey. That arc is the great circle, and your Qibla direction follows the same starting bearing.