Qibla direction in Perth

How to face the Qibla in Perth

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards west and move a further 25.4° towards north: the result is the bearing of 295.4°. 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 Perth to Mecca points to 306.2° (north-west), 10.8° away from the correct 295.4°. That map line is a rhumb line: it keeps the same compass heading all the way, but it is 20 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 31.9522° S, 115.8614° 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 Perth to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 10,025 km from Perth as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 10,235 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 12 h 18 min, although most pilgrims from Perth connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Perth 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 Perth rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Perth

On 289 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Perth 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 13:30 local time.

The sun is never opposite the Qibla of Perth during daylight, so the shadow method does not apply here; the left-hand column is the one to use.

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

Perth compared with other cities

Compared with Canberra, 3,088 km away, the Qibla in Perth is turned 17.6° further clockwise (295.4° against 277.8°), and Mecca is 3,044 km closer. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Mandurah (65 km), prays towards 295.5°, a difference of 0.1°.

Across the 21 cities in Australia on this site, the Qibla ranges from 275.0° in Hobart to 295.5° in Mandurah, a spread of 20.5°. That is too large to use one national direction, so each city has its own bearing.

See all cities on the Qibla page for Australia.

Qibla in cities near Perth

• Mandurah295.5° · 65 km
• Adelaide283.3° · 2,131 km
• Ballarat279.6° · 2,621 km
• Bendigo279.7° · 2,653 km
• Darwin290.8° · 2,653 km
• Geelong279.0° · 2,672 km