Qibla direction in Manukau

How to face the Qibla in Manukau

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards west and move a further 9.0° towards south: the result is the bearing of 261.0°. A small error of a few degrees is forgiven by most scholars, but aiming simply at west would leave you about 9° off.

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 Manukau is a local mosque: its mihrab and prayer lines already point to the Qibla. See the mosques of Manukau. 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 Manukau to Mecca points to 294.6° (north-west), a full 33.6° away from the true Qibla of 261.0° (west). The map line keeps one compass heading and is 236 km longer than the great-circle route. Because the Earth is a sphere, the shortest way to Mecca from Manukau first heads west, and that is the direction to face.

The angle on this page is the initial bearing of the great circle from 36.9928° S, 174.8799° E 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 Manukau to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 15,372 km from Manukau as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 15,564 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 18 h 35 min, although most pilgrims from Manukau connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Manukau run 10 hours ahead of Mecca in winter and 9 hours ahead of 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 Manukau rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Manukau

On 128 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Manukau 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 18:11 local time.

On 206 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 10:35.

Twice a year the sun passes directly over the Kaaba, on 28 May 2027 and 16 July 2027. Both happen at night in Manukau (21:18 and 21:27 local time), so they cannot be used here. Instead, on 14 January 2027 at 10:29 and 29 November 2027 at 10:09 the sun is over the point opposite the Kaaba, and every vertical shadow in Manukau points straight to Mecca.

Manukau compared with other cities

Compared with Wellington, 478 km away, the Qibla in Manukau is turned 4.6° further clockwise (261.0° against 256.4°), and Mecca is 103 km farther away. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Auckland (19 km), prays towards 261.2°, a difference of 0.2°.

Across the 7 cities in New Zealand on this site, the Qibla ranges from 255.6° in Dunedin to 261.2° in Auckland, a spread of 5.6°. That is too large to use one national direction, so each city has its own bearing.

See all cities on the Qibla page for New Zealand.

Qibla in cities near Manukau

• Auckland261.2° · 19 km
• Hamilton, Waikato Region, New Zealand259.8° · 95 km
• Tauranga259.2° · 137 km
• Wellington256.4° · 478 km
• Christchurch255.9° · 752 km
• Dunedin255.6° · 1,052 km