Qibla direction in Abomey

How to face the Qibla in Abomey

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards east and move a further 25.3° towards north: the result is the bearing of 64.7°. A small error of a few degrees is forgiven by most scholars, but aiming simply at east 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 Abomey to Mecca points to 68.7° (east), 4.1° away from the correct 64.7°. That map line is a rhumb line: it keeps the same compass heading all the way, but it is 5 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 7.1829° N, 1.9912° 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 Abomey to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 4,357 km from Abomey as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 4,438 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 5 h 38 min, although most pilgrims from Abomey connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Abomey run 2 hours behind Mecca all year. Prayer times, however, depend on the sun at your own location, so always use the prayer times of Abomey rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Abomey

On 149 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Abomey while it is well above the horizon. At that moment, facing the sun means facing Mecca. The effect is most frequent in May (31 days); for example, on 15 April 2027 it happens at 12:30 local time.

On 215 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 17:51.

Twice a year the sun passes directly over the Kaaba, on 28 May 2027 and 16 July 2027. Both moments are in daylight in Abomey: at 10:18 and 10:27 local time, face the sun and you face the Qibla exactly, anywhere in the city.

Abomey compared with other cities

Compared with Porto-Novo, 102 km away, the Qibla in Abomey is turned 1.0° further clockwise (64.7° against 63.6°), and Mecca is 28 km farther away. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Porto-Novo (102 km), prays towards 63.6°, a difference of 1.0°.

Across the 4 cities in Benin on this site, the Qibla ranges from 63.6° in Cotonou to 66.9° in Parakou, a spread of 3.3°. The difference is small, yet each city should still use its own bearing.

See all cities on the Qibla page for Benin.

Qibla in cities near Abomey

• Porto-Novo63.6° · 102 km
• Cotonou63.6° · 102 km
• Parakou66.9° · 250 km