Qibla direction in Gdansk

How to face the Qibla in Gdansk

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards south and move a further 34.3° towards east: the result is the bearing of 145.7°. Because the angle sits far from the cardinal points, a rough guess such as “south” would be off by more than 30°, which is why a measured bearing matters in Gdansk.

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 Gdansk, faces its direction and makes a sincere effort to be accurate. A nearby mosque is a handy reference, because its 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 Gdansk to Mecca points to 153.8° (south-east), 8.1° away from the correct 145.7°. That map line is a rhumb line: it keeps the same compass heading all the way, but it is 9 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 145.7° obtained? From the coordinates of Gdansk (54.3523° N, 18.6491° 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 Gdansk to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 4,071 km from Gdansk as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 3,748 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 5 h 17 min, although most pilgrims from Gdansk connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Gdansk 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 Gdansk rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Gdansk

On 365 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Gdansk 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 09:19 local time.

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

Gdansk compared with other cities

Compared with Warsaw, 283 km away, the Qibla in Gdansk is turned 1.9° further anticlockwise (145.7° against 147.6°), and Mecca is 283 km farther away. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Gdynia (20 km), prays towards 145.6°, the same bearing to the tenth of a degree.

Across the 33 cities in Poland on this site, the Qibla ranges from 139.1° in Szczecin to 151.6° in Bialystok, a spread of 12.6°. That is too large to use one national direction, so each city has its own bearing.

See all cities on the Qibla page for Poland.

Qibla in cities near Gdansk

• Gdynia145.6° · 20 km
• Elblag146.6° · 54 km
• Olsztyn148.0° · 136 km
• Bydgoszcz143.8° · 143 km
• Torun144.5° · 149 km
• Koszalin142.0° · 162 km