Qibla direction in Grenoble

How to face the Qibla in Grenoble

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards east and move a further 29.0° towards south: the result is the bearing of 119.0°. A small error of a few degrees is forgiven by most scholars, but aiming simply at east would leave you about 29° off.

Facing the Qibla is a condition of the prayer. Whoever prays inside the Sacred Mosque faces the Kaaba itself; whoever is far away, as in Grenoble, faces its direction and makes a sincere effort to be accurate. Any of the mosques of Grenoble is a handy reference, because the prayer rows were aligned when it was built. Once you know the direction at home, a discreet mark on the wall saves you from checking again.

Why a flat map shows a different direction

A straight line drawn on a flat (Mercator) map from Grenoble to Mecca points to 130.2° (south-east), 11.2° away from the correct 119.0°. That map line is a rhumb line: it keeps the same compass heading all the way, but it is 19 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.

How is the figure of 119.0° obtained? From the coordinates of Grenoble (45.1787° N, 5.7148° E) and of the Kaaba (21.4225° N, 39.8262° E), spherical trigonometry gives the starting bearing of the great circle joining them. Mosque architects and astronomical Qibla tables rely on exactly the same calculation.

Distance from Grenoble to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 4,075 km from Grenoble as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 3,811 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 5 h 18 min, although most pilgrims from Grenoble connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Grenoble run 2 hours behind Mecca in winter and 1 hour 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 Grenoble rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Grenoble

On 283 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Grenoble 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 February 2027 it happens at 08:27 local time.

On 28 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 June (24 days), for instance on 15 June 2027 at 20:51.

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

Grenoble compared with other cities

The Qibla here is practically the same as in Paris (119.2°), and Mecca is 422 km closer. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Lyon (93 km), prays towards 118.6°, a difference of 0.3°.

Across the 37 cities in France on this site, the Qibla ranges from 111.4° in Brest, Brittany Region, France to 125.3° in Strasbourg, a spread of 13.8°. That is too large to use one national direction, so each city has its own bearing.

See all cities on the Qibla page for France.

Qibla in cities near Grenoble

• Lyon118.6° · 93 km
• Saint-Etienne117.8° · 107 km
• Nîmes115.8° · 184 km
• Aix-en-Provence116.7° · 185 km
• Nice119.0° · 205 km
• Marseille116.3° · 211 km