Qibla direction in Sinop

How to face the Qibla in Sinop

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards east and move a further 20.1° towards north: the result is the bearing of 69.9°. A small error of a few degrees is forgiven by most scholars, but aiming simply at east would leave you about 20° 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

On a flat (Mercator) map, the straight line from Sinop to Mecca points to 70.4°, only 0.6° away from the true Qibla. Here the two methods practically agree, so a map gives a usable first idea, although the 69.9° bearing remains the exact one.

The angle on this page is the initial bearing of the great circle from 11.8642° S, 55.5025° 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 Sinop to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 11,029 km from Sinop as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 11,061 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 13 h 29 min, although most pilgrims from Sinop connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Sinop run 7 hours behind Mecca all year. Prayer times, however, depend on the sun at your own location, so always use the prayer times of Sinop rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Sinop

On 173 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Sinop 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 1 March 2027 it happens at 11:09 local time.

On 102 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 15:12.

Twice a year the sun passes directly over the Kaaba, on 28 May 2027 and 16 July 2027. Both happen at night in Sinop (05:18 and 05:27 local time), so they cannot be used here. Instead, on 13 January 2027 at 17:29 and 28 November 2027 at 17:09 the sun is over the point opposite the Kaaba, and every vertical shadow in Sinop points straight to Mecca.

Sinop compared with other cities

Compared with Brasília, 926 km away, the Qibla in Sinop is turned 1.1° further clockwise (69.9° against 68.8°), and Mecca is 612 km farther away. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Sorriso (79 km), prays towards 70.0°, 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 Sinop

• Sorriso70.0° · 79 km
• Tangará da Serra70.7° · 374 km
• Cuiabá70.6° · 420 km
• Vilhena70.7° · 514 km
• Rondonópolis70.4° · 521 km
• São Félix do Xingu68.9° · 696 km