Qibla direction in Kipushi

How to face the Qibla in Kipushi

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards north and move a further 20.5° towards east: the result is the bearing of 20.5°. A small error of a few degrees is forgiven by most scholars, but aiming simply at north would leave you about 20° 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

On a flat (Mercator) map, the straight line from Kipushi to Mecca points to 20.4°, only 0.1° away from the true Qibla. Here the two methods practically agree, so a map gives a usable first idea, although the 20.5° bearing remains the exact one.

The angle on this page is the initial bearing of the great circle from 11.7610° S, 27.2514° 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 Kipushi to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 3,937 km from Kipushi as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 4,246 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 5 h 08 min, although most pilgrims from Kipushi connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Kipushi run 1 hour behind Mecca all year. Prayer times, however, depend on the sun at your own location, so always use the prayer times of Kipushi rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Kipushi

On 249 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Kipushi while it is well above the horizon. At that moment, facing the sun means facing Mecca. The effect is most frequent in March (31 days); for example, on 1 March 2027 it happens at 12:17 local time.

On 116 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 12:33.

Twice a year the sun passes directly over the Kaaba, on 28 May 2027 and 16 July 2027. Both moments are in daylight in Kipushi: at 11:18 and 11:27 local time, face the sun and you face the Qibla exactly, anywhere in the city.

Kipushi compared with other cities

Compared with Kinshasa, 1,552 km away, the Qibla in Kipushi is turned 21.6° further anticlockwise (20.5° against 42.1°), and Mecca is 22 km farther away. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Lubumbashi (27 km), prays towards 20.2°, a difference of 0.3°.

Across the 37 cities in the DR Congo on this site, the Qibla ranges from 20.2° in Lubumbashi to 45.4° in Gemena, a spread of 25.2°. That is too large to use one national direction, so each city has its own bearing.

See all cities on the Qibla page for DR Congo.

Qibla in cities near Kipushi

• Lubumbashi20.2° · 27 km
• Likasi21.6° · 103 km
• Kolwezi23.7° · 227 km
• Bukama24.0° · 323 km
• Kamina25.6° · 417 km
• Tshilenge27.2° · 483 km