Qibla direction in Lāhījān

How to face the Qibla in Lāhījān

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards south and move a further 32.0° towards west: the result is the bearing of 212.0°. Because the angle sits far from the cardinal points, a rough guess such as “south” would be off by more than 30°, which is why a measured bearing matters in Lāhījān.

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 Lāhījān, faces its direction and makes a sincere effort to be accurate. Any of the mosques of Lāhījān 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 Lāhījān to Mecca points to 209.2° (south-west), 2.8° away from the correct 212.0°. That map line is a rhumb line: it keeps the same compass heading all the way, but it is not 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 212.0° obtained? From the coordinates of Lāhījān (37.2042° N, 50.0092° 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 Lāhījān to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 2,010 km from Lāhījān as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 1,727 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 2 h 52 min, although most pilgrims from Lāhījān connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Lāhījān run 0.5 hours ahead of Mecca all year. Prayer times, however, depend on the sun at your own location, so always use the prayer times of Lāhījān rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Lāhījān

On 365 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Lāhījān while it is well above the horizon. At that moment, facing the sun means facing Mecca. The effect is most frequent in January (31 days); for example, on 1 January 2027 it happens at 14:22 local time.

The sun is never opposite the Qibla of Lāhījān 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 Lāhījān: at 12:48 and 12:57 local time, face the sun and you face the Qibla exactly, anywhere in the city.

Lāhījān compared with other cities

Compared with Tehran, 210 km away, the Qibla in Lāhījān is turned 6.4° further anticlockwise (212.0° against 218.5°), and Mecca is 64 km farther away. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Rasht (38 km), prays towards 210.8°, a difference of 1.2°.

Across the 90 cities in Iran on this site, the Qibla ranges from 195.9° in Khoy to 257.6° in Iranshahr, a spread of 61.7°. That is too large to use one national direction, so each city has its own bearing.

See all cities on the Qibla page for Iran.

Qibla in cities near Lāhījān

• Rasht210.8° · 38 km
• Bandar-e Anzali210.1° · 57 km
• Qazvin213.6° · 104 km
• Chālūs216.7° · 140 km
• Zanjan208.7° · 147 km
• Nazarabad215.8° · 149 km