Qibla direction in Limoges

How to face the Qibla in Limoges

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards east and move a further 24.7° towards south: the result is the bearing of 114.7°. A small error of a few degrees is forgiven by most scholars, but aiming simply at east would leave you about 25° 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 Limoges to Mecca points to 127.6° (south-east), 12.9° away from the correct 114.7°. That map line is a rhumb line: it keeps the same compass heading all the way, but it is 27 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 45.8336° N, 1.2476° 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 Limoges to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 4,418 km from Limoges as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 4,159 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 5 h 42 min, although most pilgrims from Limoges connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Limoges 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 Limoges rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Limoges

On 265 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Limoges 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 15 February 2027 it happens at 08:37 local time.

On 70 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 (30 days), for instance on 1 June 2027 at 20:46.

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

Limoges compared with other cities

Compared with Paris, 346 km away, the Qibla in Limoges is turned 4.4° further anticlockwise (114.7° against 119.2°), and Mecca is 78 km closer. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Clermont-Ferrand (143 km), prays towards 116.7°, a difference of 1.9°.

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 Limoges

• Clermont-Ferrand116.7° · 143 km
• Tours115.8° · 178 km
• Bordeaux111.8° · 181 km
• Angers114.6° · 228 km
• Orléans, Centre-Val de Loire, France117.7° · 235 km
• Saint-Etienne117.8° · 248 km