Qibla direction in Tepic

How to face the Qibla in Tepic

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards north and move a further 41.0° towards east: the result is the bearing of 41.0°. Because the angle sits far from the cardinal points, a rough guess such as “north” would be off by more than 40°, which is why a measured bearing matters in Tepic.

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 Tepic to Mecca points to 90.0° (east), a full 49.0° away from the true Qibla of 41.0° (north-east). The map line keeps one compass heading and is 1,080 km longer than the great-circle route. Because the Earth is a sphere, the shortest way to Mecca from Tepic first heads north-east, and that is the direction to face.

The angle on this page is the initial bearing of the great circle from 21.5073° N, 104.8933° W 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 Tepic to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 13,896 km from Tepic as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 13,624 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 16 h 51 min, although most pilgrims from Tepic connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Tepic run 10 hours behind Mecca all year. Prayer times, however, depend on the sun at your own location, so always use the prayer times of Tepic rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Tepic

On 47 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Tepic while it is well above the horizon. At that moment, facing the sun means facing Mecca. The effect is most frequent in June (30 days); for example, on 1 June 2027 it happens at 11:55 local time.

On 316 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 14:30.

Twice a year the sun passes directly over the Kaaba, on 28 May 2027 and 16 July 2027. Both happen at night in Tepic (02:18 and 02:27 local time), so they cannot be used here. Instead, on 13 January 2027 at 14:29 and 28 November 2027 at 14:09 the sun is over the point opposite the Kaaba, and every vertical shadow in Tepic points straight to Mecca.

Tepic compared with other cities

Compared with Mexico City, 644 km away, the Qibla in Tepic is turned 5.6° further anticlockwise (41.0° against 46.6°), and Mecca is 249 km farther away. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Puerto Vallarta (105 km), prays towards 41.1°, a difference of 0.1°.

Across the 99 cities in Mexico on this site, the Qibla ranges from 25.5° in Rosarito to 54.2° in Chetumal, a spread of 28.7°. That is too large to use one national direction, so each city has its own bearing.

See all cities on the Qibla page for Mexico.

Qibla in cities near Tepic

• Puerto Vallarta41.1° · 105 km
• Zapopan42.6° · 179 km
• Tonalá42.8° · 198 km
• Mazatlán38.9° · 247 km
• Ciudad Guzmán43.1° · 250 km
• Manzanillo, Colima, Mexico42.6° · 272 km