Qibla direction in Sétif

How to face the Qibla in Sétif

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards east and move a further 16.8° towards south: the result is the bearing of 106.8°. A small error of a few degrees is forgiven by most scholars, but aiming simply at east would leave you about 17° 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 Sétif is a local mosque: its mihrab and prayer lines already point to the Qibla. See the mosques of Sétif. 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 Sétif to Mecca points to 116.2° (south-east), 9.4° away from the correct 106.8°. That map line is a rhumb line: it keeps the same compass heading all the way, but it is 13 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 36.1911° N, 5.4137° 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 Sétif to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 3,707 km from Sétif as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 3,509 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 4 h 52 min, although most pilgrims from Sétif connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Sétif 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 Sétif rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Sétif

On 243 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Sétif 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 08:01 local time.

On 97 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 July (31 days), for instance on 15 May 2027 at 18:44.

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

Sétif compared with other cities

Compared with Algiers, 217 km away, the Qibla in Sétif is turned 1.4° further clockwise (106.8° against 105.4°), and Mecca is 217 km closer. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, El Eulma (25 km), prays towards 107.0°, a difference of 0.2°.

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 Sétif

• El Eulma107.0° · 25 km
• Bordj Bou Arreridj106.0° · 60 km
• Béjaïa107.3° · 69 km
• Jijel108.0° · 77 km
• M'Sila105.3° · 95 km
• Batna City106.6° · 98 km