Qibla direction in Zhangaözen

How to face the Qibla in Zhangaözen

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards south and move a further 30.5° towards west: the result is the bearing of 210.5°. Because the angle sits far from the cardinal points, a rough guess such as “south” would be off by more than 30°, which is why a measured bearing matters in Zhangaözen.

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 Zhangaözen, faces its direction and makes a sincere effort to be accurate. A nearby mosque is a handy reference, because its 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

A straight line drawn on a flat (Mercator) map from Zhangaözen to Mecca points to 206.4° (south-west), 4.1° away from the correct 210.5°. 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.

How is the figure of 210.5° obtained? From the coordinates of Zhangaözen (43.3412° N, 52.8619° 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 Zhangaözen to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 2,720 km from Zhangaözen as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 2,422 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 3 h 42 min, although most pilgrims from Zhangaözen connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Zhangaözen run 2 hours ahead of Mecca all year. Prayer times, however, depend on the sun at your own location, so always use the prayer times of Zhangaözen rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Zhangaözen

On 365 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Zhangaözen 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 15:39 local time.

The sun is never opposite the Qibla of Zhangaözen 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 Zhangaözen: at 14:18 and 14:27 local time, face the sun and you face the Qibla exactly, anywhere in the city.

Zhangaözen compared with other cities

Compared with Astana, 1,644 km away, the Qibla in Zhangaözen is turned 21.0° further anticlockwise (210.5° against 231.5°), and Mecca is 1,573 km closer. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Aktau (141 km), prays towards 206.6°, a difference of 3.9°.

Across the 23 cities in Kazakhstan on this site, the Qibla ranges from 201.2° in Oral to 246.6° in Almaty, a spread of 45.4°. That is too large to use one national direction, so each city has its own bearing.

See all cities on the Qibla page for Kazakhstan.

Qibla in cities near Zhangaözen

• Aktau206.6° · 141 km
• Atyrau204.9° · 425 km
• Aktobe211.7° · 839 km
• Oral201.2° · 886 km
• Kyzylorda230.5° · 1,023 km
• Turkestan236.3° · 1,244 km