Qibla direction in Catamarca

How to face the Qibla in Catamarca

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards east and move a further 12.7° towards north: the result is the bearing of 77.3°. A small error of a few degrees is forgiven by most scholars, but aiming simply at east would leave you about 13° off.

Facing the Qibla is a condition of the prayer. Whoever prays inside the Sacred Mosque faces the Kaaba itself; whoever is far away, as in Catamarca, faces its direction and makes a sincere effort to be accurate. A nearby mosque is a handy reference, because its prayer rows were aligned when it was built. Once you know the direction at home, a discreet mark on the wall saves you from checking again.

Why a flat map shows a different direction

A straight line drawn on a flat (Mercator) map from Catamarca to Mecca points to 63.9° (north-east), 13.4° away from the correct 77.3°. That map line is a rhumb line: it keeps the same compass heading all the way, but it is 36 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.

How is the figure of 77.3° obtained? From the coordinates of Catamarca (28.4696° S, 65.7852° W) and of the Kaaba (21.4225° N, 39.8262° E), spherical trigonometry gives the starting bearing of the great circle joining them. Mosque architects and astronomical Qibla tables rely on exactly the same calculation.

Distance from Catamarca to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 12,590 km from Catamarca as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 12,698 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 15 h 19 min, although most pilgrims from Catamarca connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Catamarca 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 Catamarca rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Catamarca

On 225 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Catamarca 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 12:08 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 January (31 days), for instance on 1 January 2027 at 18:08.

Twice a year the sun passes directly over the Kaaba, on 28 May 2027 and 16 July 2027. Both happen at night in Catamarca (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 Catamarca points straight to Mecca.

Catamarca compared with other cities

Compared with Buenos Aires, 979 km away, the Qibla in Catamarca is turned 1.1° further clockwise (77.3° against 76.3°), and Mecca is 529 km farther away. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, La Rioja (148 km), prays towards 78.2°, a difference of 0.8°.

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 Catamarca

• La Rioja78.2° · 148 km
• Santiago del Estero76.5° · 167 km
• San Miguel de Tucumán76.4° · 192 km
• Córdoba, Cordoba Province, Argentina77.9° · 361 km
• Salta75.7° · 409 km
• Rawson79.9° · 436 km