Qibla direction in Orléans, Ontario, Canada

How to face the Qibla in Orléans, Ontario, Canada

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards east and move a further 32.7° towards north: the result is the bearing of 57.3°. 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 Orléans, Ontario, Canada.

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 Orléans, Ontario, Canada, 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 Orléans, Ontario, Canada to Mecca points to 104.2° (east), a full 46.9° away from the true Qibla of 57.3° (north-east). The map line keeps one compass heading and is 757 km longer than the great-circle route. Because the Earth is a sphere, the shortest way to Mecca from Orléans, Ontario, Canada first heads north-east, and that is the direction to face.

How is the figure of 57.3° obtained? From the coordinates of Orléans, Ontario, Canada (45.4573° N, 75.5043° 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 Orléans, Ontario, Canada to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 10,129 km from Orléans, Ontario, Canada as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 9,853 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 12 h 25 min, although most pilgrims from Orléans, Ontario, Canada connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Orléans, Ontario, Canada 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 Orléans, Ontario, Canada rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Orléans, Ontario, Canada

From Orléans, Ontario, Canada the sun never rises high in the Qibla direction of 57.3°, so you cannot simply face the sun. The opposite method works instead, as the right-hand column of the table shows.

On 300 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 1 February 2027 at 16:19.

Twice a year the sun passes directly over the Kaaba, on 28 May 2027 and 16 July 2027. Both happen at night in Orléans, Ontario, Canada (05:18 and 05:27 local time), so they cannot be used here.

Orléans, Ontario, Canada compared with other cities

The Qibla here is practically the same as in Ottawa (57.2°), and Mecca is 15 km closer. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Ottawa (16 km), prays towards 57.2°, a difference of 0.1°.

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 Orléans, Ontario, Canada

• Ottawa57.2° · 16 km
• Saint-Louis-de-Terrebonne58.5° · 136 km
• Montreal58.7° · 150 km
• Kingston, Ontario, Canada56.6° · 157 km
• Trois-Rivières59.4° · 249 km
• Sherbrooke59.9° · 281 km