Qibla direction in Trindade

How to face the Qibla in Trindade

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards east and move a further 20.8° towards north: the result is the bearing of 69.2°. A small error of a few degrees is forgiven by most scholars, but aiming simply at east would leave you about 21° 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 Trindade to Mecca points to 66.5° (north-east), 2.7° away from the correct 69.2°. That map line is a rhumb line: it keeps the same compass heading all the way, but it is 11 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 16.6494° S, 49.4889° 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 Trindade to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 10,607 km from Trindade as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 10,678 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 12 h 59 min, although most pilgrims from Trindade connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Trindade 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 Trindade rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Trindade

On 203 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Trindade while it is well above the horizon. At that moment, facing the sun means facing Mecca. The effect is most frequent in March (31 days); for example, on 15 February 2027 it happens at 11:51 local time.

On 86 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 13:48.

Twice a year the sun passes directly over the Kaaba, on 28 May 2027 and 16 July 2027. Both happen at night in Trindade (06:18 and 06:27 local time), so they cannot be used here. Instead, on 13 January 2027 at 18:29 and 28 November 2027 at 18:09 the sun is over the point opposite the Kaaba, and every vertical shadow in Trindade points straight to Mecca.

Trindade compared with other cities

The Qibla here is practically the same as in Brasília (68.8°), and Mecca is 190 km farther away. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Goiânia (25 km), prays towards 69.2°, a difference of 0.1°.

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 Trindade

• Goiânia69.2° · 25 km
• Aparecida de Goiânia69.2° · 32 km
• Senador Canedo69.1° · 43 km
• Anápolis69.1° · 67 km
• Águas Lindas de Goiás68.9° · 162 km
• Luziânia68.8° · 170 km