Qibla direction in San Lorenzo

How to face the Qibla in San Lorenzo

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards east and move a further 16.8° towards north: the result is the bearing of 73.2°. A small error of a few degrees is forgiven by most scholars, but aiming simply at east would leave you about 17° 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. 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

A straight line drawn on a flat (Mercator) map from San Lorenzo to Mecca points to 63.7° (north-east), 9.5° away from the correct 73.2°. That map line is a rhumb line: it keeps the same compass heading all the way, but it is 19 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 25.3397° S, 57.5088° 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 San Lorenzo to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 11,708 km from San Lorenzo as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 11,810 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 14 h 16 min, although most pilgrims from San Lorenzo connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in San Lorenzo run 6 hours behind Mecca all year. Prayer times, however, depend on the sun at your own location, so always use the prayer times of San Lorenzo rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in San Lorenzo

On 253 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of San Lorenzo 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 12:23 local time.

On 85 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 18:07.

Twice a year the sun passes directly over the Kaaba, on 28 May 2027 and 16 July 2027. Both happen at night in San Lorenzo (06:18 and 06:27 local time), so they cannot be used here. Instead, on 13 January 2027 at 18:29 and 28 November 2027 at 18:09 the sun is over the point opposite the Kaaba, and every vertical shadow in San Lorenzo points straight to Mecca.

San Lorenzo compared with other cities

The Qibla here is practically the same as in Asunción (73.2°), and Mecca is 12 km closer. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Asunción (15 km), prays towards 73.2°, the same bearing to the tenth of a degree.

Across the 3 cities in Paraguay on this site, the Qibla ranges from 72.2° in Ciudad del Este to 73.2° in Asunción, a spread of 1.0°. The difference is small, yet each city should still use its own bearing.

See all cities on the Qibla page for Paraguay.

Qibla in cities near San Lorenzo

• Asunción73.2° · 15 km
• Ciudad del Este72.2° · 288 km