Qibla direction in Daoukro

How to face the Qibla in Daoukro

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards east and move a further 23.5° towards north: the result is the bearing of 66.5°. A small error of a few degrees is forgiven by most scholars, but aiming simply at east would leave you about 23° 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

A straight line drawn on a flat (Mercator) map from Daoukro to Mecca points to 71.3° (east), 4.7° away from the correct 66.5°. That map line is a rhumb line: it keeps the same compass heading all the way, but it is 8 km longer than the true shortest route. The Qibla follows the great circle, the shortest path on the curved Earth, which is why the bearing differs.

The angle on this page is the initial bearing of the great circle from 7.0591° N, 3.9631° 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 Daoukro to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 4,961 km from Daoukro as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 5,020 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 6 h 20 min, although most pilgrims from Daoukro connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Daoukro run 3 hours behind Mecca all year. Prayer times, however, depend on the sun at your own location, so always use the prayer times of Daoukro rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Daoukro

On 150 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Daoukro 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 15 April 2027 it happens at 11:50 local time.

On 186 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 17:20.

Twice a year the sun passes directly over the Kaaba, on 28 May 2027 and 16 July 2027. Both moments are in daylight in Daoukro: at 09:18 and 09:27 local time, face the sun and you face the Qibla exactly, anywhere in the city.

Daoukro compared with other cities

The Qibla here is practically the same as in Yamoussoukro (66.7°), and Mecca is 144 km closer. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Abengourou (63 km), prays towards 66.1°, a difference of 0.4°.

Across the 20 cities in Côte d’Ivoire on this site, the Qibla ranges from 65.0° in Abidjan to 69.1° in Korhogo, a spread of 4.2°. That is too large to use one national direction, so each city has its own bearing.

See all cities on the Qibla page for Côte d’Ivoire.

Qibla in cities near Daoukro

• Abengourou66.1° · 63 km
• Bouaké67.4° · 137 km
• Yamoussoukro66.7° · 147 km
• Bondoukou67.1° · 168 km
• Anyama65.1° · 174 km
• Abidjan65.0° · 190 km