Qibla direction in Safi

How to face the Qibla in Safi

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards east and move a further 1.4° towards south: the result is the bearing of 91.4°. The direction is close to due east, which makes it easy to remember.

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 Safi is a local mosque: its mihrab and prayer lines already point to the Qibla. See the mosques of Safi. 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 Safi to Mecca points to 104.0° (east), 12.6° away from the correct 91.4°. That map line is a rhumb line: it keeps the same compass heading all the way, but it is 33 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 32.2994° N, 9.2372° 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 Safi to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 4,971 km from Safi as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 4,816 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 6 h 21 min, although most pilgrims from Safi connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Safi run 3 hours behind Mecca all year. Prayer times, however, depend on the sun at your own location, so always use the prayer times of Safi rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Safi

On 182 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Safi 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 07:20 local time.

On 171 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 May (31 days), for instance on 1 April 2027 at 18:22.

Twice a year the sun passes directly over the Kaaba, on 28 May 2027 and 16 July 2027. Both moments are in daylight in Safi: at 09:18 and 09:27 local time, face the sun and you face the Qibla exactly, anywhere in the city.

Safi compared with other cities

Compared with Rabat, 294 km away, the Qibla in Safi is turned 3.2° further anticlockwise (91.4° against 94.6°), and Mecca is 214 km farther away. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, El Jadida (126 km), prays towards 92.8°, a difference of 1.4°.

Across the 34 cities in Morocco on this site, the Qibla ranges from 87.7° in Guelmim to 98.7° in Oujda, a spread of 11.0°. That is too large to use one national direction, so each city has its own bearing.

See all cities on the Qibla page for Morocco.

Qibla in cities near Safi

• El Jadida92.8° · 126 km
• Marrakesh91.4° · 138 km
• Settat93.1° · 171 km
• El Kelaa des Srarhna92.2° · 174 km
• Berrechid93.4° · 188 km
• Dar Bouazza93.5° · 189 km