Qibla direction in Bayawan

How to face the Qibla in Bayawan

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards west and move a further 20.3° towards north: the result is the bearing of 290.3°. A small error of a few degrees is forgiven by most scholars, but aiming simply at west would leave you about 20° 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 Bayawan to Mecca points to 278.6° (west), 11.7° away from the correct 290.3°. That map line is a rhumb line: it keeps the same compass heading all the way, but it is 69 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 9.3649° N, 122.8040° 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 Bayawan to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 8,908 km from Bayawan as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 8,894 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 10 h 59 min, although most pilgrims from Bayawan connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Bayawan 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 Bayawan rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Bayawan

On 99 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Bayawan 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 15 April 2027 it happens at 11:52 local time.

On 161 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 07:10.

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

Bayawan compared with other cities

Compared with Manila, 615 km away, the Qibla in Bayawan is turned 1.3° further clockwise (290.3° against 289.0°), and Mecca is 383 km farther away. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Dumaguete (56 km), prays towards 290.4°, a difference of 0.1°.

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 Bayawan

• Dumaguete290.4° · 56 km
• Kabankalan290.2° · 69 km
• Bago, Western Visayas, Philippines290.1° · 130 km
• Naga, Central Visayas, Philippines290.3° · 140 km
• Toledo City290.2° · 145 km
• Bacolod City290.1° · 146 km