Qibla direction in Abu Ghraib

How to face the Qibla in Abu Ghraib

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards south and move a further 19.1° towards west: the result is the bearing of 199.1°. A small error of a few degrees is forgiven by most scholars, but aiming simply at south would leave you about 19° 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 Abu Ghraib is a local mosque: its mihrab and prayer lines already point to the Qibla. See the mosques of Abu Ghraib. 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

On a flat (Mercator) map, the straight line from Abu Ghraib to Mecca points to 198.0°, only 1.1° away from the true Qibla. Here the two methods practically agree, so a map gives a usable first idea, although the 199.1° bearing remains the exact one.

The angle on this page is the initial bearing of the great circle from 33.3056° N, 44.1848° 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 Abu Ghraib to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 1,389 km from Abu Ghraib as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 1,079 km away. The distance is short enough that many pilgrims from Abu Ghraib travel to the Hijaz by road.

Clocks in Abu Ghraib run the same time as Mecca all year. Prayer times, however, depend on the sun at your own location, so always use the prayer times of Abu Ghraib rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Abu Ghraib

On 365 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Abu Ghraib 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 13:17 local time.

The sun is never opposite the Qibla of Abu Ghraib 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 Abu Ghraib: at 12:18 and 12:27 local time, face the sun and you face the Qibla exactly, anywhere in the city.

Abu Ghraib compared with other cities

Compared with Baghdad, 20 km away, the Qibla in Abu Ghraib is turned 0.8° further anticlockwise (199.1° against 199.9°), and Mecca is 10 km closer. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Baghdad (20 km), prays towards 199.9°, a difference of 0.8°.

Across the 40 cities in Iraq on this site, the Qibla ranges from 190.9° in Duhok to 224.3° in Al Fāw, a spread of 33.4°. That is too large to use one national direction, so each city has its own bearing.

See all cities on the Qibla page for Iraq.

Qibla in cities near Abu Ghraib

• Baghdad199.9° · 20 km
• Al Maḩmūdīyah200.2° · 32 km
• Fallujah197.4° · 37 km
• Al-Musayab200.3° · 59 km
• Baqubah200.1° · 63 km
• Karbala199.5° · 78 km