Qibla direction in Greater Sudbury

How to face the Qibla in Greater Sudbury

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards east and move a further 36.8° towards north: the result is the bearing of 53.2°. Because the angle sits far from the cardinal points, a rough guess such as “east” would be off by more than 30°, which is why a measured bearing matters in Greater Sudbury.

Facing the Qibla is a condition of the prayer. Whoever prays inside the Sacred Mosque faces the Kaaba itself; whoever is far away, as in Greater Sudbury, faces its direction and makes a sincere effort to be accurate. A nearby mosque is a handy reference, because its prayer rows were aligned when it was built. Once you know the direction at home, a discreet mark on the wall saves you from checking again.

Why a flat map shows a different direction

This is a place where maps mislead badly: a straight line on a flat map from Greater Sudbury to Mecca points to 104.3° (east), a full 51.0° away from the true Qibla of 53.2° (north-east). The map line keeps one compass heading and is 908 km longer than the great-circle route. Because the Earth is a sphere, the shortest way to Mecca from Greater Sudbury first heads north-east, and that is the direction to face.

How is the figure of 53.2° obtained? From the coordinates of Greater Sudbury (46.4900° N, 80.9900° W) and of the Kaaba (21.4225° N, 39.8262° E), spherical trigonometry gives the starting bearing of the great circle joining them. Mosque architects and astronomical Qibla tables rely on exactly the same calculation.

Distance from Greater Sudbury to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 10,412 km from Greater Sudbury as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 10,126 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 12 h 45 min, although most pilgrims from Greater Sudbury connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Greater Sudbury run 8 hours behind Mecca in winter and 7 hours behind Mecca in summer, because of daylight saving time. Prayer times, however, depend on the sun at your own location, so always use the prayer times of Greater Sudbury rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Greater Sudbury

From Greater Sudbury the sun never rises high in the Qibla direction of 53.2°, so you cannot simply face the sun. The opposite method works instead, as the right-hand column of the table shows.

On 322 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 March (31 days), for instance on 15 January 2027 at 16:29.

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

Greater Sudbury compared with other cities

Compared with Ottawa, 426 km away, the Qibla in Greater Sudbury is turned 3.9° further anticlockwise (53.2° against 57.2°), and Mecca is 268 km farther away. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Barrie (254 km), prays towards 54.3°, a difference of 1.1°.

Across the 46 cities in Canada on this site, the Qibla ranges from 16.5° in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada to 73.4° in St. John's, a spread of 56.9°. That is too large to use one national direction, so each city has its own bearing.

See all cities on the Qibla page for Canada.

Qibla in cities near Greater Sudbury

• Barrie54.3° · 254 km
• Vaughan54.5° · 317 km
• Markham54.7° · 321 km
• Ajax54.8° · 331 km
• Guelph54.0° · 332 km
• Oshawa55.0° · 333 km