Qibla direction in Pinsk

How to face the Qibla in Pinsk

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards south and move a further 24.3° towards east: the result is the bearing of 155.7°. A small error of a few degrees is forgiven by most scholars, but aiming simply at south would leave you about 24° 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 Pinsk to Mecca points to 160.7° (south), 5.1° away from the correct 155.7°. That map line is a rhumb line: it keeps the same compass heading all the way, but it is 3 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 52.1215° N, 26.0673° 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 Pinsk to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 3,613 km from Pinsk as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 3,282 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 4 h 45 min, although most pilgrims from Pinsk connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Pinsk run the same time as Mecca all year. Prayer times, however, depend on the sun at your own location, so always use the prayer times of Pinsk rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Pinsk

On 365 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Pinsk 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 11:35 local time.

The sun is never opposite the Qibla of Pinsk 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 moments are in daylight in Pinsk: at 12:18 and 12:27 local time, face the sun and you face the Qibla exactly, anywhere in the city.

Pinsk compared with other cities

Compared with Minsk, 222 km away, the Qibla in Pinsk is turned 3.5° further anticlockwise (155.7° against 159.2°), and Mecca is 144 km closer. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Baranovichi (112 km), prays towards 156.2°, a difference of 0.5°.

Across the 13 cities in Belarus on this site, the Qibla ranges from 151.8° in Brest, Brest Oblast, Belarus to 164.2° in Homyel, a spread of 12.4°. That is too large to use one national direction, so each city has its own bearing.

See all cities on the Qibla page for Belarus.

Qibla in cities near Pinsk

• Baranovichi156.2° · 112 km
• Brest, Brest Oblast, Belarus151.8° · 160 km
• Lida155.5° · 203 km
• Mazyr161.0° · 215 km
• Minsk159.2° · 222 km
• Hrodna153.1° · 229 km