Qibla direction in Gonbad-e Kāvūs

How to face the Qibla in Gonbad-e Kāvūs

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards south and move a further 44.3° towards west: the result is the bearing of 224.3°. Because the angle sits far from the cardinal points, a rough guess such as “south” would be off by more than 40°, which is why a measured bearing matters in Gonbad-e Kāvūs.

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 Gonbad-e Kāvūs is a local mosque: its mihrab and prayer lines already point to the Qibla. See the mosques of Gonbad-e Kāvūs. 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 Gonbad-e Kāvūs to Mecca points to 220.0° (south-west), 4.2° away from the correct 224.3°. That map line is a rhumb line: it keeps the same compass heading all the way, but it is 2 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 37.2500° N, 55.1672° 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 Gonbad-e Kāvūs to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 2,297 km from Gonbad-e Kāvūs as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 2,050 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 3 h 12 min, although most pilgrims from Gonbad-e Kāvūs connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Gonbad-e Kāvūs 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 Gonbad-e Kāvūs rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Gonbad-e Kāvūs

On 365 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Gonbad-e Kāvūs 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 15:01 local time.

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

Gonbad-e Kāvūs compared with other cities

Compared with Tehran, 377 km away, the Qibla in Gonbad-e Kāvūs is turned 5.8° further clockwise (224.3° against 218.5°), and Mecca is 351 km farther away. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Gorgan (79 km), prays towards 223.5°, a difference of 0.8°.

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 Gonbad-e Kāvūs

• Gorgan223.5° · 79 km
• Shahrud225.4° · 94 km
• Bojnourd228.2° · 193 km
• Sari220.8° · 202 km
• Qā’em Shahr220.6° · 222 km
• Babol220.0° · 235 km