Qibla direction in Gunungsitoli

How to face the Qibla in Gunungsitoli

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards west and move a further 24.2° towards north: the result is the bearing of 294.2°. A small error of a few degrees is forgiven by most scholars, but aiming simply at west would leave you about 24° 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 Gunungsitoli to Mecca points to 289.7° (west), 4.5° away from the correct 294.2°. That map line is a rhumb line: it keeps the same compass heading all the way, but it is 13 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 1.2888° N, 97.6143° 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 Gunungsitoli to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 6,640 km from Gunungsitoli as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 6,734 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 8 h 19 min, although most pilgrims from Gunungsitoli connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Gunungsitoli run 4 hours ahead of Mecca all year. Prayer times, however, depend on the sun at your own location, so always use the prayer times of Gunungsitoli rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Gunungsitoli

On 179 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Gunungsitoli while it is well above the horizon. At that moment, facing the sun means facing Mecca. The effect is most frequent in May (31 days); for example, on 1 April 2027 it happens at 13:02 local time.

On 185 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 07:38.

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

Gunungsitoli compared with other cities

Compared with Jakarta, 1,321 km away, the Qibla in Gunungsitoli is turned 1.0° further anticlockwise (294.2° against 295.2°), and Mecca is 1,280 km closer. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Subulussalam (156 km), prays towards 293.4°, a difference of 0.8°.

Across the 140 cities in Indonesia on this site, the Qibla ranges from 290.2° in Merauke to 295.5° in Pelabuhanratu, a spread of 5.3°. That is too large to use one national direction, so each city has its own bearing.

See all cities on the Qibla page for Indonesia.

Qibla in cities near Gunungsitoli

• Subulussalam293.4° · 156 km
• Padangsidempuan293.8° · 184 km
• Pematangsiantar293.0° · 246 km
• Rantauprapat293.3° · 263 km
• Binjai292.8° · 275 km
• Medan292.8° · 281 km