Qibla direction in Quilmes

How to face the Qibla in Quilmes

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards east and move a further 13.8° towards north: the result is the bearing of 76.2°. A small error of a few degrees is forgiven by most scholars, but aiming simply at east would leave you about 14° 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. If a mosque is nearby, its mihrab and prayer lines are the easiest reference, since they were set when the building was laid out. 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

This is a place where maps mislead badly: a straight line on a flat map from Quilmes to Mecca points to 59.0° (north-east), a full 17.3° away from the true Qibla of 76.2° (east). The map line keeps one compass heading and is 57 km longer than the great-circle route. Because the Earth is a sphere, the shortest way to Mecca from Quilmes first heads east, and that is the direction to face.

The angle on this page is the initial bearing of the great circle from 34.7207° S, 58.2545° W 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 Quilmes to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 12,053 km from Quilmes as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 12,206 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 14 h 41 min, although most pilgrims from Quilmes connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Quilmes run 6 hours behind Mecca all year. Prayer times, however, depend on the sun at your own location, so always use the prayer times of Quilmes rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Quilmes

On 225 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Quilmes while it is well above the horizon. At that moment, facing the sun means facing Mecca. The effect is most frequent in January (31 days); for example, on 1 January 2027 it happens at 10:46 local time.

On 105 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 January (31 days), for instance on 1 January 2027 at 18:13.

Twice a year the sun passes directly over the Kaaba, on 28 May 2027 and 16 July 2027. Both happen at night in Quilmes (06:18 and 06:27 local time), so they cannot be used here. Instead, on 13 January 2027 at 18:29 and 28 November 2027 at 18:09 the sun is over the point opposite the Kaaba, and every vertical shadow in Quilmes points straight to Mecca.

Quilmes compared with other cities

The Qibla here is practically the same as in Buenos Aires (76.3°), and Mecca is 8 km closer. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Buenos Aires (16 km), prays towards 76.3°, the same bearing to the tenth of a degree.

Across the 34 cities in Argentina on this site, the Qibla ranges from 73.1° in Posadas to 86.4° in Comodoro Rivadavia, a spread of 13.3°. That is too large to use one national direction, so each city has its own bearing.

See all cities on the Qibla page for Argentina.

Qibla in cities near Quilmes

• Buenos Aires76.3° · 16 km
• Laferrere76.4° · 30 km
• La Plata76.2° · 35 km
• Merlo76.5° · 44 km
• Jose C. Paz76.4° · 52 km
• San Nicolás de los Arroyos76.7° · 237 km