Qibla direction in Kaunas

How to face the Qibla in Kaunas

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards south and move a further 26.0° towards east: the result is the bearing of 154.0°. A small error of a few degrees is forgiven by most scholars, but aiming simply at south would leave you about 26° off.

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 Kaunas, 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 Kaunas to Mecca points to 160.1° (south), 6.2° away from the correct 154.0°. 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.

How is the figure of 154.0° obtained? From the coordinates of Kaunas (54.9016° N, 23.9091° 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 Kaunas to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 3,953 km from Kaunas as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 3,622 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 5 h 09 min, although most pilgrims from Kaunas connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Kaunas run 1 hour behind Mecca in winter and the same time as Mecca in summer, because of daylight saving time. Prayer times, however, depend on the sun at your own location, so always use the prayer times of Kaunas rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Kaunas

On 365 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Kaunas 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 10:35 local time.

The sun is never opposite the Qibla of Kaunas 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 Kaunas: at 12:18 and 12:27 local time, face the sun and you face the Qibla exactly, anywhere in the city.

Kaunas compared with other cities

Compared with Vilnius, 91 km away, the Qibla in Kaunas is turned 2.0° further anticlockwise (154.0° against 156.0°), and Mecca is 59 km farther away. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Vilnius (91 km), prays towards 156.0°, a difference of 2.0°.

Across the 3 cities in Lithuania on this site, the Qibla ranges from 150.3° in Klaipėda to 156.0° in Vilnius, a spread of 5.7°. That is too large to use one national direction, so each city has its own bearing.

See all cities on the Qibla page for Lithuania.

Qibla in cities near Kaunas

• Vilnius156.0° · 91 km
• Klaipėda150.3° · 197 km