Qibla direction in Quito

How to face the Qibla in Quito

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards east and move a further 23.9° towards north: the result is the bearing of 66.1°. A small error of a few degrees is forgiven by most scholars, but aiming simply at east would leave you about 24° 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 Quito to Mecca points to 79.4° (east), 13.3° away from the correct 66.1°. That map line is a rhumb line: it keeps the same compass heading all the way, but it is 141 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 0.2299° S, 78.5250° 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 Quito to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 12,935 km from Quito as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 12,846 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 15 h 43 min, although most pilgrims from Quito connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Quito run 8 hours behind Mecca all year. Prayer times, however, depend on the sun at your own location, so always use the prayer times of Quito rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Quito

On 186 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Quito 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 April 2027 it happens at 11:34 local time.

On 177 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 17:07.

Twice a year the sun passes directly over the Kaaba, on 28 May 2027 and 16 July 2027. Both happen at night in Quito (04:18 and 04:27 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 Quito points straight to Mecca.

Quito compared with other cities

The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Santo Domingo de los Colorados (72 km), prays towards 66.0°, a difference of 0.1°.

Across the 16 cities in Ecuador on this site, the Qibla ranges from 65.3° in Esmeraldas to 67.8° in Loja, a spread of 2.5°. The difference is small, yet each city should still use its own bearing.

See all cities on the Qibla page for Ecuador.

Qibla in cities near Quito

• Santo Domingo de los Colorados66.0° · 72 km
• Ibarra65.9° · 78 km
• Latacunga66.4° · 79 km
• Ambato66.5° · 114 km
• Quevedo66.3° · 137 km
• Riobamba66.7° · 160 km