Qibla direction in The Hague

How to face the Qibla in The Hague

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards east and move a further 34.6° towards south: the result is the bearing of 124.6°. Because the angle sits far from the cardinal points, a rough guess such as “east” would be off by more than 30°, which is why a measured bearing matters in The Hague.

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 The Hague, faces its direction and makes a sincere effort to be accurate. Any of the mosques of The Hague is a handy reference, because the 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 The Hague to Mecca points to 137.9° (south-east), 13.3° away from the correct 124.6°. That map line is a rhumb line: it keeps the same compass heading all the way, but it is 28 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 124.6° obtained? From the coordinates of The Hague (52.0767° N, 4.2986° 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 The Hague to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 4,568 km from The Hague as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 4,275 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 5 h 52 min, although most pilgrims from The Hague connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in The Hague run 2 hours behind Mecca in winter and 1 hour 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 The Hague rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in The Hague

On 287 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of The Hague 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 1 February 2027 it happens at 08:59 local time.

The sun is never opposite the Qibla of The Hague 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 The Hague: at 11:18 and 11:27 local time, face the sun and you face the Qibla exactly, anywhere in the city.

The Hague compared with other cities

Compared with Amsterdam, 52 km away, the Qibla in The Hague is turned 1.0° further anticlockwise (124.6° against 125.6°), and Mecca is 14 km farther away. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Leiden (16 km), prays towards 124.9°, a difference of 0.3°.

Among the 22 cities in the Netherlands on this site, The Hague has the smallest Qibla bearing; the largest is 128.4° in Groningen. Across the country the direction varies by 3.8°.

See all cities on the Qibla page for Netherlands.

Qibla in cities near The Hague

• Leiden124.9° · 16 km
• Rotterdam124.7° · 21 km
• Dordrecht124.8° · 39 km
• Haarlem125.3° · 41 km
• Amsterdam125.6° · 52 km
• Utrecht125.6° · 56 km