Qibla direction in Tarawa

How to face the Qibla in Tarawa

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards west and move a further 29.2° towards north: the result is the bearing of 299.2°. A small error of a few degrees is forgiven by most scholars, but aiming simply at west 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. 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

This is a place where maps mislead badly: a straight line on a flat map from Tarawa to Mecca points to 278.8° (west), a full 20.4° away from the true Qibla of 299.2° (north-west). The map line keeps one compass heading and is 272 km longer than the great-circle route. Because the Earth is a sphere, the shortest way to Mecca from Tarawa first heads north-west, and that is the direction to face.

The angle on this page is the initial bearing of the great circle from 1.3278° N, 172.9770° 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 Tarawa to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 14,334 km from Tarawa as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 14,229 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 17 h 22 min, although most pilgrims from Tarawa connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Tarawa run 9 hours ahead of Mecca all year. Prayer times, however, depend on the sun at your own location, so always use the prayer times of Tarawa rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Tarawa

On 179 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Tarawa 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 12:54 local time.

On 186 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 09:04.

Twice a year the sun passes directly over the Kaaba, on 28 May 2027 and 16 July 2027. Both happen at night in Tarawa (21:18 and 21:27 local time), so they cannot be used here. Instead, on 14 January 2027 at 09:29 and 29 November 2027 at 09:09 the sun is over the point opposite the Kaaba, and every vertical shadow in Tarawa points straight to Mecca.

Tarawa compared with other cities

See all cities on the Qibla page for Kiribati.