Qibla direction in Zliten

How to face the Qibla in Zliten

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards east and move a further 19.9° towards south: the result is the bearing of 109.9°. A small error of a few degrees is forgiven by most scholars, but aiming simply at east would leave you about 20° 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 Zliten is a local mosque: its mihrab and prayer lines already point to the Qibla. See the mosques of Zliten. 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 Zliten to Mecca points to 116.2° (south-east), 6.3° away from the correct 109.9°. That map line is a rhumb line: it keeps the same compass heading all the way, but it is 5 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 32.4674° N, 14.5687° 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 Zliten to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 2,779 km from Zliten as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 2,597 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 3 h 46 min, although most pilgrims from Zliten connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Zliten run 1 hour behind Mecca all year. Prayer times, however, depend on the sun at your own location, so always use the prayer times of Zliten rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Zliten

On 266 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Zliten 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 15 February 2027 it happens at 08:23 local time.

On 77 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 June (30 days), for instance on 15 May 2027 at 19:28.

Twice a year the sun passes directly over the Kaaba, on 28 May 2027 and 16 July 2027. Both moments are in daylight in Zliten: at 11:18 and 11:27 local time, face the sun and you face the Qibla exactly, anywhere in the city.

Zliten compared with other cities

Compared with Tripoli, Libya, 137 km away, the Qibla in Zliten is turned 0.7° further clockwise (109.9° against 109.2°), and Mecca is 137 km closer. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Al Khums (35 km), prays towards 109.9°, the same bearing to the tenth of a degree.

Across the 17 cities in Libya on this site, the Qibla ranges from 98.1° in Sabha to 123.1° in Tobruk, a spread of 25.0°. That is too large to use one national direction, so each city has its own bearing.

See all cities on the Qibla page for Libya.

Qibla in cities near Zliten

• Al Khums109.9° · 35 km
• Misratah110.3° · 50 km
• Tājūrā’109.3° · 123 km
• Qaşr Bin Ghashīr108.8° · 132 km
• Tripoli, Libya109.2° · 137 km
• Janzūr108.9° · 150 km