Qibla direction in Naivasha

How to face the Qibla in Naivasha

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards north and move a further 8.3° towards east: the result is the bearing of 8.3°. A small error of a few degrees is forgiven by most scholars, but aiming simply at north would leave you about 8° 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. 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

On a flat (Mercator) map, the straight line from Naivasha to Mecca points to 8.5°, only 0.2° away from the true Qibla. Here the two methods practically agree, so a map gives a usable first idea, although the 8.3° bearing remains the exact one.

The angle on this page is the initial bearing of the great circle from 0.7138° S, 36.4326° 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 Naivasha to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 2,489 km from Naivasha as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 2,821 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 3 h 26 min, although most pilgrims from Naivasha connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Naivasha 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 Naivasha rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Naivasha

On 190 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Naivasha while it is well above the horizon. At that moment, facing the sun means facing Mecca. The effect is most frequent in May (31 days); for example, on 1 April 2027 it happens at 12:35 local time.

On 174 days the sun stands exactly opposite the Qibla: then the shadow of any vertical object, a pole, a door frame or a plumb line, points straight towards Mecca. This is most frequent in January (31 days), for instance on 1 January 2027 at 12:51.

Twice a year the sun passes directly over the Kaaba, on 28 May 2027 and 16 July 2027. Both moments are in daylight in Naivasha: at 12:18 and 12:27 local time, face the sun and you face the Qibla exactly, anywhere in the city.

Naivasha compared with other cities

Compared with Nairobi, 76 km away, the Qibla in Naivasha is turned 1.1° further clockwise (8.3° against 7.2°), and Mecca is 57 km closer. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Nakuru (60 km), prays towards 9.3°, a difference of 1.0°.

Across the 20 cities in Kenya on this site, the Qibla ranges from 0.4° in Mombasa to 359.4° in Malindi, a spread of 359.0°. That is too large to use one national direction, so each city has its own bearing.

See all cities on the Qibla page for Kenya.

Qibla in cities near Naivasha

• Nakuru9.3° · 60 km
• Kikuyu7.6° · 65 km
• Ruiru6.9° · 76 km
• Nairobi7.2° · 76 km
• Thika6.7° · 79 km
• Karuri6.5° · 83 km