Qibla direction in Ekibastuz

How to face the Qibla in Ekibastuz

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards west and move a further 34.3° towards south: the result is the bearing of 235.7°. Because the angle sits far from the cardinal points, a rough guess such as “west” would be off by more than 30°, which is why a measured bearing matters in Ekibastuz.

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. If a mosque is nearby, its mihrab and prayer lines are the easiest reference, since they were set when the building was laid out. 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 Ekibastuz to Mecca points to 222.5° (south-west), 13.2° away from the correct 235.7°. That map line is a rhumb line: it keeps the same compass heading all the way, but it is 28 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 51.7237° N, 75.3229° 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 Ekibastuz to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 4,544 km from Ekibastuz as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 4,278 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 5 h 51 min, although most pilgrims from Ekibastuz connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Ekibastuz 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 Ekibastuz rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Ekibastuz

On 287 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Ekibastuz 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 1 February 2027 it happens at 16:10 local time.

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

Ekibastuz compared with other cities

Compared with Astana, 275 km away, the Qibla in Ekibastuz is turned 4.2° further clockwise (235.7° against 231.5°), and Mecca is 252 km farther away. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Pavlodar (128 km), prays towards 237.1°, a difference of 1.4°.

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 Ekibastuz

• Pavlodar237.1° · 128 km
• Temirtau234.5° · 249 km
• Karaganda234.9° · 265 km
• Astana231.5° · 275 km
• Semey242.6° · 373 km
• Kokshetau226.8° · 437 km