Qibla direction in Rafsanjān

How to face the Qibla in Rafsanjān

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards west and move a further 27.9° towards south: the result is the bearing of 242.1°. A small error of a few degrees is forgiven by most scholars, but aiming simply at west 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. The simplest check in Rafsanjān is a local mosque: its mihrab and prayer lines already point to the Qibla. See the mosques of Rafsanjān. 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 Rafsanjān to Mecca points to 238.3° (south-west), 3.8° away from the correct 242.1°. That map line is a rhumb line: it keeps the same compass heading all the way, but it is 1 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 30.4067° N, 55.9939° 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 Rafsanjān to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 1,897 km from Rafsanjān as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 1,744 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 2 h 44 min, although most pilgrims from Rafsanjān connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Rafsanjān 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 Rafsanjān rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Rafsanjān

On 327 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Rafsanjān while it is well above the horizon. At that moment, facing the sun means facing Mecca. The effect is most frequent in March (31 days); for example, on 15 January 2027 it happens at 16:38 local time.

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

Rafsanjān compared with other cities

Compared with Tehran, 726 km away, the Qibla in Rafsanjān is turned 23.6° further clockwise (242.1° against 218.5°), and Mecca is 49 km closer. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Kerman (105 km), prays towards 244.3°, a difference of 2.2°.

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 Rafsanjān

• Kerman244.3° · 105 km
• Sīrjān244.3° · 110 km
• Yazd234.6° · 227 km
• Jīroft249.9° · 256 km
• Marvdasht237.1° · 313 km
• Jahrom243.4° · 317 km