Qibla direction in Los Ángeles

How to face the Qibla in Los Ángeles

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards east and move a further 5.0° towards north: the result is the bearing of 85.0°. The direction is close to due east, which makes it easy to remember.

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

This is a place where maps mislead badly: a straight line on a flat map from Los Ángeles to Mecca points to 60.9° (north-east), a full 24.0° away from the true Qibla of 85.0° (east). The map line keeps one compass heading and is 119 km longer than the great-circle route. Because the Earth is a sphere, the shortest way to Mecca from Los Ángeles first heads east, and that is the direction to face.

The angle on this page is the initial bearing of the great circle from 37.4697° S, 72.3537° 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 Los Ángeles to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 13,352 km from Los Ángeles as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 13,508 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 16 h 12 min, although most pilgrims from Los Ángeles connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Los Ángeles run 6 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 Los Ángeles rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Los Ángeles

On 187 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Los Ángeles while it is well above the horizon. At that moment, facing the sun means facing Mecca. The effect is most frequent in January (31 days); for example, on 1 January 2027 it happens at 10:39 local time.

On 146 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 18:13.

Twice a year the sun passes directly over the Kaaba, on 28 May 2027 and 16 July 2027. Both happen at night in Los Ángeles (05:18 and 05:27 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 Los Ángeles points straight to Mecca.

Los Ángeles compared with other cities

Compared with Santiago, Santiago Metropolitan, Chile, 472 km away, the Qibla in Los Ángeles is turned 3.1° further clockwise (85.0° against 81.8°), and Mecca is 205 km farther away. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Villa Mercedes (34 km), prays towards 84.7°, a difference of 0.2°.

Across the 24 cities in Chile on this site, the Qibla ranges from 74.3° in Arica to 92.9° in Punta Arenas, a spread of 18.6°. That is too large to use one national direction, so each city has its own bearing.

See all cities on the Qibla page for Chile.

Qibla in cities near Los Ángeles

• Villa Mercedes84.7° · 34 km
• Coronel85.1° · 85 km
• Concepción85.0° · 94 km
• Chillan84.3° · 99 km
• Temuco85.8° · 142 km
• Talca83.4° · 236 km