Qibla direction in Huainan

How to face the Qibla in Huainan

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards west and move a further 12.2° towards north: the result is the bearing of 282.2°. A small error of a few degrees is forgiven by most scholars, but aiming simply at west would leave you about 12° 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

This is a place where maps mislead badly: a straight line on a flat map from Huainan to Mecca points to 260.7° (west), a full 21.5° away from the true Qibla of 282.2° (west). The map line keeps one compass heading and is 141 km longer than the great-circle route. Because the Earth is a sphere, the shortest way to Mecca from Huainan first heads west, and that is the direction to face.

The angle on this page is the initial bearing of the great circle from 32.6264° N, 116.9969° E 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 Huainan to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 7,586 km from Huainan as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 7,450 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 9 h 25 min, although most pilgrims from Huainan connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Huainan run 5 hours ahead of Mecca all year. Prayer times, however, depend on the sun at your own location, so always use the prayer times of Huainan rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Huainan

On 122 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Huainan while it is well above the horizon. At that moment, facing the sun means facing Mecca. The effect is most frequent in May (31 days); for example, on 1 May 2027 it happens at 18:05 local time.

On 228 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 March 2027 at 07:06.

Twice a year the sun passes directly over the Kaaba, on 28 May 2027 and 16 July 2027. Both moments are in daylight in Huainan: at 17:18 and 17:27 local time, face the sun and you face the Qibla exactly, anywhere in the city.

Huainan compared with other cities

Compared with Beijing, 811 km away, the Qibla in Huainan is turned 3.3° further clockwise (282.2° against 278.9°), and Mecca is 201 km farther away. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Bengbu (49 km), prays towards 282.2°, the same bearing to the tenth of a degree.

Across the 612 cities in China on this site, the Qibla ranges from 249.0° in Tacheng to 286.5° in Suifenhe, a spread of 37.5°. That is too large to use one national direction, so each city has its own bearing.

See all cities on the Qibla page for China.

Qibla in cities near Huainan

• Bengbu282.2° · 49 km
• Hefei282.6° · 89 km
• Mingguang282.6° · 92 km
• Lu'an282.3° · 109 km
• Suzhou, Anhui, China281.8° · 112 km
• Fuyang281.5° · 114 km