Qibla direction in Zanjan

How to face the Qibla in Zanjan

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards south and move a further 28.7° towards west: the result is the bearing of 208.7°. A small error of a few degrees is forgiven by most scholars, but aiming simply at south would leave you about 29° 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 Zanjan is a local mosque: its mihrab and prayer lines already point to the Qibla. See the mosques of Zanjan. 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 Zanjan to Mecca points to 206.3° (south-west), 2.3° away from the correct 208.7°. 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.

The angle on this page is the initial bearing of the great circle from 36.6764° N, 48.4963° 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 Zanjan to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 1,892 km from Zanjan as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 1,600 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 2 h 44 min, although most pilgrims from Zanjan connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Zanjan 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 Zanjan rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Zanjan

On 365 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Zanjan 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 14:13 local time.

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

Zanjan compared with other cities

Compared with Tehran, 284 km away, the Qibla in Zanjan is turned 9.8° further anticlockwise (208.7° against 218.5°), and Mecca is 54 km closer. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Mīāneh (108 km), prays towards 205.3°, a difference of 3.4°.

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 Zanjan

• Mīāneh205.3° · 108 km
• Rasht210.8° · 118 km
• Bandar-e Anzali210.1° · 123 km
• Qazvin213.6° · 142 km
• Lāhījān212.0° · 147 km
• Ardabil205.8° · 176 km