Qibla direction in Jijiga

How to face the Qibla in Jijiga

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards north and move a further 13.0° towards west: the result is the bearing of 347.0°. A small error of a few degrees is forgiven by most scholars, but aiming simply at north would leave you about 13° 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. The simplest check in Jijiga is a local mosque: its mihrab and prayer lines already point to the Qibla. See the mosques of Jijiga. 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 Jijiga to Mecca points to 346.7°, only 0.3° away from the true Qibla. Here the two methods practically agree, so a map gives a usable first idea, although the 347.0° bearing remains the exact one.

The angle on this page is the initial bearing of the great circle from 9.3500° N, 42.8000° 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 Jijiga to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 1,380 km from Jijiga as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 1,715 km away. The distance is short enough that many pilgrims from Jijiga travel to the Hijaz by road.

Clocks in Jijiga run the same time as Mecca all year. Prayer times, however, depend on the sun at your own location, so always use the prayer times of Jijiga rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Jijiga

On 136 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Jijiga 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 12:09 local time.

On 227 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 11:41.

Twice a year the sun passes directly over the Kaaba, on 28 May 2027 and 16 July 2027. Both moments are in daylight in Jijiga: at 12:18 and 12:27 local time, face the sun and you face the Qibla exactly, anywhere in the city.

Jijiga compared with other cities

Compared with Addis Ababa, 446 km away, the Qibla in Jijiga is turned 17.7° further anticlockwise (347.0° against 4.7°), and Mecca is 4 km closer. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Harar (75 km), prays towards 349.9°, a difference of 2.9°.

Across the 28 cities in Ethiopia on this site, the Qibla ranges from 1.0° in Dessie to 350.8° in Dire Dawa, a spread of 349.8°. That is too large to use one national direction, so each city has its own bearing.

See all cities on the Qibla page for Ethiopia.

Qibla in cities near Jijiga

• Harar349.9° · 75 km
• Ārabī347.7° · 76 km
• Dire Dawa350.8° · 106 km
• Debre Berhan1.3° · 360 km
• Warder340.3° · 385 km
• Adama2.3° · 398 km