Qibla direction in Mīāndoāb

How to face the Qibla in Mīāndoāb

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards south and move a further 21.1° towards west: the result is the bearing of 201.1°. A small error of a few degrees is forgiven by most scholars, but aiming simply at south would leave you about 21° off.

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 Mīāndoāb, faces its direction and makes a sincere effort to be accurate. Any of the mosques of Mīāndoāb 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

On a flat (Mercator) map, the straight line from Mīāndoāb to Mecca points to 199.3°, only 1.7° away from the true Qibla. Here the two methods practically agree, so a map gives a usable first idea, although the 201.1° bearing remains the exact one.

How is the figure of 201.1° obtained? From the coordinates of Mīāndoāb (36.9667° N, 46.1096° 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 Mīāndoāb to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 1,832 km from Mīāndoāb as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 1,521 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 2 h 39 min, although most pilgrims from Mīāndoāb connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Mīāndoāb 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 Mīāndoāb rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Mīāndoāb

On 365 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Mīāndoāb 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 13:50 local time.

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

Mīāndoāb compared with other cities

Compared with Tehran, 496 km away, the Qibla in Mīāndoāb is turned 17.4° further anticlockwise (201.1° against 218.5°), and Mecca is 114 km closer. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Mahabad (41 km), prays towards 200.1°, a difference of 1.0°.

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 Mīāndoāb

• Mahabad200.1° · 41 km
• Marāgheh, East Azerbaijan Province, Iran200.9° · 49 km
• Būkān201.9° · 50 km
• Saqqez202.5° · 81 km
• Piranshahr198.3° · 91 km
• Bāneh201.6° · 110 km