Qibla direction in Candelaria

How to face the Qibla in Candelaria

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards west and move a further 19.3° towards north: the result is the bearing of 289.3°. A small error of a few degrees is forgiven by most scholars, but aiming simply at west would leave you about 19° 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 Candelaria to Mecca points to 275.5° (west), 13.7° away from the correct 289.3°. That map line is a rhumb line: it keeps the same compass heading all the way, but it is 83 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 13.9311° N, 121.4233° 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 Candelaria to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 8,595 km from Candelaria as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 8,558 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 10 h 37 min, although most pilgrims from Candelaria connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Candelaria run 5 hours ahead of Mecca all year. Prayer times, however, depend on the sun at your own location, so always use the prayer times of Candelaria rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Candelaria

On 109 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Candelaria 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 May 2027 it happens at 12:04 local time.

On 178 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 March (31 days), for instance on 1 February 2027 at 06:49.

Twice a year the sun passes directly over the Kaaba, on 28 May 2027 and 16 July 2027. Both moments are in daylight in Candelaria: at 17:18 and 17:27 local time, face the sun and you face the Qibla exactly, anywhere in the city.

Candelaria compared with other cities

The Qibla here is practically the same as in Manila (289.0°), and Mecca is 69 km farther away. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, San Pablo (19 km), prays towards 289.2°, the same bearing to the tenth of a degree.

Across the 80 cities in the Philippines on this site, the Qibla ranges from 288.1° in Laoag to 290.9° in General Santos, a spread of 2.8°. The difference is small, yet each city should still use its own bearing.

See all cities on the Qibla page for Philippines.

Qibla in cities near Candelaria

• San Pablo289.2° · 19 km
• Lucena City289.3° · 21 km
• Lipa City289.2° · 28 km
• Santa Cruz289.2° · 39 km
• Rosario, Calabarzon, Philippines289.3° · 40 km
• Calamba289.2° · 42 km