Qibla direction in Reynosa

How to face the Qibla in Reynosa

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards north and move a further 44.5° towards east: the result is the bearing of 44.5°. 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 Reynosa.

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 Reynosa, 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

This is a place where maps mislead badly: a straight line on a flat map from Reynosa to Mecca points to 92.1° (east), a full 47.6° away from the true Qibla of 44.5° (north-east). The map line keeps one compass heading and is 994 km longer than the great-circle route. Because the Earth is a sphere, the shortest way to Mecca from Reynosa first heads north-east, and that is the direction to face.

How is the figure of 44.5° obtained? From the coordinates of Reynosa (26.0801° N, 98.2846° W) 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 Reynosa to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 13,066 km from Reynosa as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 12,800 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 15 h 52 min, although most pilgrims from Reynosa connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Reynosa run 9 hours behind Mecca in winter and 8 hours behind 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 Reynosa rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Reynosa

From Reynosa the sun never rises high in the Qibla direction of 44.5°, so you cannot simply face the sun. The opposite method works instead, as the right-hand column of the table shows.

On 365 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 15:30.

Twice a year the sun passes directly over the Kaaba, on 28 May 2027 and 16 July 2027. Both happen at night in Reynosa (04:18 and 04:27 local time), so they cannot be used here. Instead, on 13 January 2027 at 15:29 and 28 November 2027 at 15:09 the sun is over the point opposite the Kaaba, and every vertical shadow in Reynosa points straight to Mecca.

Reynosa compared with other cities

Compared with Mexico City, 745 km away, the Qibla in Reynosa is turned 2.1° further anticlockwise (44.5° against 46.6°), and Mecca is 580 km closer. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Heroica Matamoros (81 km), prays towards 45.2°, a difference of 0.7°.

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 Reynosa

• Heroica Matamoros45.2° · 81 km
• Ciudad Benito Juárez43.2° · 187 km
• Apodaca43.1° · 193 km
• Nuevo Laredo43.0° · 198 km
• Monterrey43.0° · 208 km
• Ciudad Victoria44.7° · 274 km