Qibla direction in Ulm

How to face the Qibla in Ulm

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards east and move a further 38.0° towards south: the result is the bearing of 128.0°. Because the angle sits far from the cardinal points, a rough guess such as “east” would be off by more than 30°, which is why a measured bearing matters in Ulm.

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 Ulm, faces its direction and makes a sincere effort to be accurate. Any of the mosques of Ulm 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 Ulm to Mecca points to 138.3° (south-east), 10.4° away from the correct 128.0°. That map line is a rhumb line: it keeps the same compass heading all the way, but it is 16 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 128.0° obtained? From the coordinates of Ulm (48.3984° N, 9.9916° 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 Ulm to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 4,000 km from Ulm as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 3,711 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 5 h 12 min, although most pilgrims from Ulm connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Ulm 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 Ulm rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Ulm

On 321 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Ulm 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 January 2027 it happens at 08:39 local time.

The sun is never opposite the Qibla of Ulm during daylight, so the shadow method does not apply here; the left-hand column is the one to use.

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

Ulm compared with other cities

Compared with Berlin, 519 km away, the Qibla in Ulm is turned 8.7° further anticlockwise (128.0° against 136.7°), and Mecca is 130 km closer. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Reutlingen (59 km), prays towards 127.0°, a difference of 0.9°.

Across the 63 cities in Germany on this site, the Qibla ranges from 124.8° in Freiburg im Breisgau to 136.7° in Berlin, a spread of 11.9°. That is too large to use one national direction, so each city has its own bearing.

See all cities on the Qibla page for Germany.

Qibla in cities near Ulm

• Reutlingen127.0° · 59 km
• Augsburg129.1° · 67 km
• Stuttgart127.3° · 74 km
• Heilbronn127.8° · 100 km
• Pforzheim126.8° · 109 km
• Ingolstadt130.3° · 113 km