Qibla direction in Szczecin

How to face the Qibla in Szczecin

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards south and move a further 40.9° towards east: the result is the bearing of 139.1°. Because the angle sits far from the cardinal points, a rough guess such as “south” would be off by more than 40°, which is why a measured bearing matters in Szczecin.

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 Szczecin to Mecca points to 148.7° (south-east), 9.6° away from the correct 139.1°. That map line is a rhumb line: it keeps the same compass heading all the way, but it is 13 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 53.4289° N, 14.5530° 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 Szczecin to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 4,154 km from Szczecin as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 3,839 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 5 h 23 min, although most pilgrims from Szczecin connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Szczecin 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 Szczecin rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Szczecin

On 365 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Szczecin 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 09:04 local time.

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

Szczecin compared with other cities

Compared with Warsaw, 454 km away, the Qibla in Szczecin is turned 8.5° further anticlockwise (139.1° against 147.6°), and Mecca is 366 km farther away. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Gorzów Wielkopolski (89 km), prays towards 139.4°, a difference of 0.3°.

Among the 33 cities in Poland on this site, Szczecin has the smallest Qibla bearing; the largest is 151.6° in Bialystok. Across the country the direction varies by 12.6°.

See all cities on the Qibla page for Poland.

Qibla in cities near Szczecin

• Gorzów Wielkopolski139.4° · 89 km
• Koszalin142.0° · 136 km
• Zielona Góra139.1° · 178 km
• Poznan141.6° · 196 km
• Bydgoszcz143.8° · 232 km
• Legnica139.4° · 270 km