Qibla direction in Mandurah

How to face the Qibla in Mandurah

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards west and move a further 25.5° towards north: the result is the bearing of 295.5°. A small error of a few degrees is forgiven by most scholars, but aiming simply at west would leave you about 25° 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

A straight line drawn on a flat (Mercator) map from Mandurah to Mecca points to 306.6° (north-west), 11.1° away from the correct 295.5°. That map line is a rhumb line: it keeps the same compass heading all the way, but it is 21 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 32.5269° S, 115.7217° 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 Mandurah to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 10,040 km from Mandurah as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 10,253 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 12 h 19 min, although most pilgrims from Mandurah connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Mandurah run 5 hours ahead of Mecca all year. Prayer times, however, depend on the sun at your own location, so always use the prayer times of Mandurah rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Mandurah

On 290 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Mandurah 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 13:35 local time.

On 13 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 December (13 days).

Twice a year the sun passes directly over the Kaaba, on 28 May 2027 and 16 July 2027. Both happen at night in Mandurah (17:18 and 17:27 local time), so they cannot be used here.

Mandurah compared with other cities

Compared with Canberra, 3,084 km away, the Qibla in Mandurah is turned 17.7° further clockwise (295.5° against 277.8°), and Mecca is 3,028 km closer. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Perth (65 km), prays towards 295.4°, a difference of 0.1°.

Among the 21 cities in Australia on this site, Mandurah has the largest Qibla bearing; the smallest is 275.0° in Hobart. Across the country the direction varies by 20.5°.

See all cities on the Qibla page for Australia.

Qibla in cities near Mandurah

• Perth295.4° · 65 km
• Adelaide283.3° · 2,128 km
• Ballarat279.6° · 2,611 km
• Bendigo279.7° · 2,644 km
• Geelong279.0° · 2,660 km
• Melbourne278.8° · 2,710 km