Qibla direction in Santiago de Cuba

How to face the Qibla in Santiago de Cuba

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards east and move a further 29.8° towards north: the result is the bearing of 60.2°. A small error of a few degrees is forgiven by most scholars, but aiming simply at east would leave you about 30° 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 Santiago de Cuba to Mecca points to 89.3° (east), a full 29.1° away from the true Qibla of 60.2° (north-east). The map line keeps one compass heading and is 388 km longer than the great-circle route. Because the Earth is a sphere, the shortest way to Mecca from Santiago de Cuba first heads north-east, and that is the direction to face.

The angle on this page is the initial bearing of the great circle from 20.0229° N, 75.8217° 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 Santiago de Cuba to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 11,641 km from Santiago de Cuba as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 11,456 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 14 h 12 min, although most pilgrims from Santiago de Cuba connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Santiago de Cuba 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 Santiago de Cuba rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Santiago de Cuba

On 64 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Santiago de Cuba while it is well above the horizon. At that moment, facing the sun means facing Mecca. The effect is most frequent in June (30 days); for example, on 1 June 2027 it happens at 12:45 local time.

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 January (31 days), for instance on 1 January 2027 at 16:37.

Twice a year the sun passes directly over the Kaaba, on 28 May 2027 and 16 July 2027. Both happen at night in Santiago de Cuba (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 Santiago de Cuba points straight to Mecca.

Santiago de Cuba compared with other cities

Compared with Havana, 761 km away, the Qibla in Santiago de Cuba is turned 4.1° further clockwise (60.2° against 56.0°), and Mecca is 394 km closer. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Palma Soriano (28 km), prays towards 60.0°, a difference of 0.1°.

Across the 15 cities in Cuba on this site, the Qibla ranges from 55.5° in Pinar del Río to 60.4° in Guantánamo, a spread of 4.9°. That is too large to use one national direction, so each city has its own bearing.

See all cities on the Qibla page for Cuba.

Qibla in cities near Santiago de Cuba

• Palma Soriano60.0° · 28 km
• Guantánamo60.4° · 65 km
• Bayamo59.7° · 94 km
• Holguín59.8° · 107 km
• Manzanillo, Granma Province, Cuba59.5° · 140 km
• Las Tunas59.4° · 157 km