Qibla direction in Erlangen

How to face the Qibla in Erlangen

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards east and move a further 40.6° towards south: the result is the bearing of 130.6°. Because the angle sits far from the cardinal points, a rough guess such as “east” would be off by more than 40°, which is why a measured bearing matters in Erlangen.

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 Erlangen, faces its direction and makes a sincere effort to be accurate. A nearby mosque is a handy reference, because its 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 Erlangen to Mecca points to 140.8° (south-east), 10.2° away from the correct 130.6°. That map line is a rhumb line: it keeps the same compass heading all the way, but it is 15 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 130.6° obtained? From the coordinates of Erlangen (49.5910° N, 11.0078° 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 Erlangen to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 4,027 km from Erlangen as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 3,731 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 5 h 14 min, although most pilgrims from Erlangen connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Erlangen 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 Erlangen rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Erlangen

On 325 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Erlangen 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 08:48 local time.

The sun is never opposite the Qibla of Erlangen 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 Erlangen: at 11:18 and 11:27 local time, face the sun and you face the Qibla exactly, anywhere in the city.

Erlangen compared with other cities

Compared with Berlin, 367 km away, the Qibla in Erlangen is turned 6.1° further anticlockwise (130.6° against 136.7°), and Mecca is 104 km closer. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Nuremberg (16 km), prays towards 130.5°, the same bearing to the tenth of a degree.

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 Erlangen

• Nuremberg130.5° · 16 km
• Würzburg129.4° · 79 km
• Ingolstadt130.3° · 97 km
• Regensburg131.5° · 102 km
• Augsburg129.1° · 136 km
• Heilbronn127.8° · 139 km