Qibla direction in Singkawang

How to face the Qibla in Singkawang

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards west and move a further 22.5° towards north: the result is the bearing of 292.5°. A small error of a few degrees is forgiven by most scholars, but aiming simply at west would leave you about 22° 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. The simplest check in Singkawang is a local mosque: its mihrab and prayer lines already point to the Qibla. See the mosques of Singkawang. 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 Singkawang to Mecca points to 286.9° (west), 5.6° away from the correct 292.5°. That map line is a rhumb line: it keeps the same compass heading all the way, but it is 22 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 0.9093° N, 108.9846° 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 Singkawang to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 7,818 km from Singkawang as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 7,884 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 9 h 42 min, although most pilgrims from Singkawang connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Singkawang 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 Singkawang rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Singkawang

On 148 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Singkawang 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 12:23 local time.

On 150 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 October (31 days), for instance on 15 January 2027 at 07:06.

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

Singkawang compared with other cities

Compared with Jakarta, 827 km away, the Qibla in Singkawang is turned 2.7° further anticlockwise (292.5° against 295.2°), and Mecca is 102 km closer. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Pontianak (111 km), prays towards 292.7°, a difference of 0.3°.

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 Singkawang

• Pontianak292.7° · 111 km
• Tanjung Pandan293.9° · 432 km
• Sungailiat293.9° · 442 km
• Pangkalpinang294.0° · 465 km
• Pangkalanbuun293.2° · 496 km
• Tanjung Pinang293.1° · 503 km