Qibla direction in Recife

How to face the Qibla in Recife

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards east and move a further 23.8° towards north: the result is the bearing of 66.2°. A small error of a few degrees is forgiven by most scholars, but aiming simply at east 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

On a flat (Mercator) map, the straight line from Recife to Mecca points to 68.1°, only 1.9° away from the true Qibla. Here the two methods practically agree, so a map gives a usable first idea, although the 66.2° bearing remains the exact one.

The angle on this page is the initial bearing of the great circle from 8.0539° S, 34.8811° 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 Recife to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 8,777 km from Recife as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 8,836 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 10 h 50 min, although most pilgrims from Recife connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Recife 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 Recife rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Recife

On 202 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Recife 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 11:27 local time.

On 137 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 14:33.

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

Recife compared with other cities

Compared with Brasília, 1,658 km away, the Qibla in Recife is turned 2.6° further anticlockwise (66.2° against 68.8°), and Mecca is 1,640 km closer. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Jaboatão dos Guararapes (16 km), prays towards 66.2°, the same bearing to the tenth of a degree.

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 Recife

• Jaboatão dos Guararapes66.2° · 16 km
• Igarassu66.2° · 25 km
• Cabo de Santo Agostinho66.2° · 31 km
• Vitória de Santo Antão66.3° · 46 km
• João Pessoa66.4° · 104 km
• Caruaru66.4° · 123 km