Qibla direction in San Miguel de Tucumán

How to face the Qibla in San Miguel de Tucumán

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards east and move a further 13.6° towards north: the result is the bearing of 76.4°. A small error of a few degrees is forgiven by most scholars, but aiming simply at east would leave you about 14° 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 San Miguel de Tucumán, 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 San Miguel de Tucumán to Mecca points to 64.6° (north-east), 11.8° away from the correct 76.4°. That map line is a rhumb line: it keeps the same compass heading all the way, but it is 29 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 76.4° obtained? From the coordinates of San Miguel de Tucumán (26.8160° S, 65.2105° 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 San Miguel de Tucumán to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 12,493 km from San Miguel de Tucumán as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 12,592 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 15 h 12 min, although most pilgrims from San Miguel de Tucumán connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in San Miguel de Tucumán 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 San Miguel de Tucumán rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in San Miguel de Tucumán

On 232 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of San Miguel de Tucumán 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 12:28 local time.

On 103 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 18:06.

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

San Miguel de Tucumán compared with other cities

The Qibla here is practically the same as in Buenos Aires (76.3°), and Mecca is 432 km farther away. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Santiago del Estero (144 km), prays towards 76.5°, 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 San Miguel de Tucumán

• Santiago del Estero76.5° · 144 km
• Catamarca77.3° · 192 km
• Salta75.7° · 224 km
• San Salvador de Jujuy75.4° · 292 km
• La Rioja78.2° · 331 km
• Córdoba, Cordoba Province, Argentina77.9° · 520 km