Qibla direction in M'Sila

How to face the Qibla in M'Sila

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards east and move a further 15.3° towards south: the result is the bearing of 105.3°. A small error of a few degrees is forgiven by most scholars, but aiming simply at east would leave you about 15° off.

Scholars agree that someone who can see the Kaaba must face it exactly, while someone far away faces its direction (jihat al-Ka‘bah) as precisely as reasonably possible. The simplest check in M'Sila is a local mosque: its mihrab and prayer lines already point to the Qibla. See the mosques of M'Sila. At home, mark the direction once with tape or a small arrow so the whole family prays the same way.

Why a flat map shows a different direction

A straight line drawn on a flat (Mercator) map from M'Sila to Mecca points to 114.8° (south-east), 9.6° away from the correct 105.3°. That map line is a rhumb line: it keeps the same compass heading all the way, but it is 14 km longer than the true shortest route. The Qibla follows the great circle, the shortest path on the curved Earth, which is why the bearing differs.

The angle on this page is the initial bearing of the great circle from 35.7089° N, 4.5372° E to the Kaaba (21.4225° N, 39.8262° E). It is the method used by mosque architects and by every serious Qibla calculator, and it gives one exact answer for each point on Earth.

Distance from M'Sila to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 3,768 km from M'Sila as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 3,576 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 4 h 56 min, although most pilgrims from M'Sila connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in M'Sila run 2 hours behind Mecca all year. Prayer times, however, depend on the sun at your own location, so always use the prayer times of M'Sila rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in M'Sila

On 239 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of M'Sila while it is well above the horizon. At that moment, facing the sun means facing Mecca. The effect is most frequent in March (31 days); for example, on 1 March 2027 it happens at 07:56 local time.

On 107 days the sun stands exactly opposite the Qibla: then the shadow of any vertical object, a pole, a door frame or a plumb line, points straight towards Mecca. This is most frequent in May (31 days), for instance on 1 May 2027 at 18:59.

Twice a year the sun passes directly over the Kaaba, on 28 May 2027 and 16 July 2027. Both moments are in daylight in M'Sila: at 10:18 and 10:27 local time, face the sun and you face the Qibla exactly, anywhere in the city.

M'Sila compared with other cities

The Qibla here is practically the same as in Algiers (105.4°), and Mecca is 156 km closer. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Bordj Bou Arreridj (45 km), prays towards 106.0°, a difference of 0.7°.

Across the 38 cities in Algeria on this site, the Qibla ranges from 94.7° in Béchar to 110.2° in Annaba, a spread of 15.5°. That is too large to use one national direction, so each city has its own bearing.

See all cities on the Qibla page for Algeria.

Qibla in cities near M'Sila

• Bordj Bou Arreridj106.0° · 45 km
• Bou Saâda104.2° · 65 km
• Sétif106.8° · 95 km
• El Eulma107.0° · 115 km
• Tizi Ouzou106.3° · 120 km
• Béjaïa107.3° · 126 km