Qibla direction in Saint-Marc

How to face the Qibla in Saint-Marc

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards east and move a further 28.2° towards north: the result is the bearing of 61.8°. A small error of a few degrees is forgiven by most scholars, but aiming simply at east would leave you about 28° 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

This is a place where maps mislead badly: a straight line on a flat map from Saint-Marc to Mecca points to 88.7° (east), a full 27.0° away from the true Qibla of 61.8° (north-east). The map line keeps one compass heading and is 336 km longer than the great-circle route. Because the Earth is a sphere, the shortest way to Mecca from Saint-Marc first heads north-east, and that is the direction to face.

The angle on this page is the initial bearing of the great circle from 19.1114° N, 72.7008° W 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 Saint-Marc to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 11,404 km from Saint-Marc as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 11,231 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 13 h 55 min, although most pilgrims from Saint-Marc connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Saint-Marc run 8 hours behind Mecca in winter and 7 hours 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 Saint-Marc rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Saint-Marc

On 73 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Saint-Marc while it is well above the horizon. At that moment, facing the sun means facing Mecca. The effect is most frequent in June (30 days); for example, on 1 June 2027 it happens at 12:24 local time.

On 292 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 16:38.

Twice a year the sun passes directly over the Kaaba, on 28 May 2027 and 16 July 2027. Both happen at night in Saint-Marc (05:18 and 05:27 local time), so they cannot be used here. Instead, on 13 January 2027 at 16:29 and 28 November 2027 at 16:09 the sun is over the point opposite the Kaaba, and every vertical shadow in Saint-Marc points straight to Mecca.

Saint-Marc compared with other cities

The Qibla here is practically the same as in Port-au-Prince (62.0°), and Mecca is 4 km farther away. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Dessalines (26 km), prays towards 61.8°, the same bearing to the tenth of a degree.

Across the 10 cities in Haiti on this site, the Qibla ranges from 61.5° in Les Cayes to 62.0° in Port-au-Prince, a spread of 0.5°. The difference is small, yet each city should still use its own bearing.

See all cities on the Qibla page for Haiti.

Qibla in cities near Saint-Marc

• Dessalines61.8° · 26 km
• Arcahaie61.9° · 43 km
• Léogâne61.9° · 67 km
• Port-au-Prince62.0° · 74 km
• Tigwav61.8° · 78 km
• Cap-Haïtien61.9° · 89 km