Qibla direction in Juazeiro do Norte

How to face the Qibla in Juazeiro do Norte

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards east and move a further 22.8° towards north: the result is the bearing of 67.2°. A small error of a few degrees is forgiven by most scholars, but aiming simply at east would leave you about 23° 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 Juazeiro do Norte to Mecca points to 69.8° (east), 2.6° away from the correct 67.2°. That map line is a rhumb line: it keeps the same compass heading all the way, but it is 17 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 7.2131° S, 39.3153° W 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 Juazeiro do Norte to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 9,189 km from Juazeiro do Norte as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 9,232 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 11 h 19 min, although most pilgrims from Juazeiro do Norte connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Juazeiro do Norte 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 Juazeiro do Norte rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Juazeiro do Norte

On 180 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Juazeiro do Norte while it is well above the horizon. At that moment, facing the sun means facing Mecca. The effect is most frequent in August (31 days); for example, on 15 March 2027 it happens at 10:59 local time.

On 141 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 15:28.

Twice a year the sun passes directly over the Kaaba, on 28 May 2027 and 16 July 2027. Both moments are in daylight in Juazeiro do Norte: at 06:18 and 06:27 local time, face the sun and you face the Qibla exactly, anywhere in the city.

Juazeiro do Norte compared with other cities

Compared with Brasília, 1,337 km away, the Qibla in Juazeiro do Norte is turned 1.6° further anticlockwise (67.2° against 68.8°), and Mecca is 1,228 km closer. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Paulo Afonso (272 km), prays towards 66.7°, a difference of 0.5°.

Across the 257 cities in Brazil on this site, the Qibla ranges from 66.1° in Maceió to 74.2° in Uruguaiana, a spread of 8.1°. That is too large to use one national direction, so each city has its own bearing.

See all cities on the Qibla page for Brazil.

Qibla in cities near Juazeiro do Norte

• Paulo Afonso66.7° · 272 km
• Petrolina67.2° · 276 km
• Mossoró67.2° · 313 km
• Santa Cruz do Capibaribe66.5° · 353 km
• Garanhuns66.4° · 361 km
• Maracanaú67.5° · 379 km