Qibla direction in Mendoza

How to face the Qibla in Mendoza

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards east and move a further 9.3° towards north: the result is the bearing of 80.7°. A small error of a few degrees is forgiven by most scholars, but aiming simply at east would leave you about 9° 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 Mendoza to Mecca points to 62.4° (north-east), a full 18.3° away from the true Qibla of 80.7° (east). The map line keeps one compass heading and is 66 km longer than the great-circle route. Because the Earth is a sphere, the shortest way to Mecca from Mendoza first heads east, and that is the direction to face.

The angle on this page is the initial bearing of the great circle from 32.8895° S, 68.8458° 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 Mendoza to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 12,971 km from Mendoza as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 13,102 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 15 h 46 min, although most pilgrims from Mendoza connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Mendoza 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 Mendoza rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Mendoza

On 209 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Mendoza 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 11:22 local time.

On 127 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 18:11.

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

Mendoza compared with other cities

Compared with Buenos Aires, 986 km away, the Qibla in Mendoza is turned 4.4° further clockwise (80.7° against 76.3°), and Mecca is 910 km farther away. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Rawson (148 km), prays towards 79.9°, 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 Mendoza

• Rawson79.9° · 148 km
• San Rafael81.3° · 198 km
• San Luis79.7° · 239 km
• Río Cuarto78.6° · 420 km
• La Rioja78.2° · 430 km
• Córdoba, Cordoba Province, Argentina77.9° · 468 km