Qibla direction in Brasov

How to face the Qibla in Brasov

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards south and move a further 30.4° towards east: the result is the bearing of 149.6°. 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 Brasov.

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 Brasov, 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 Brasov to Mecca points to 154.3° (south-east), 4.6° away from the correct 149.6°. That map line is a rhumb line: it keeps the same compass heading all the way, but it is 2 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 149.6° obtained? From the coordinates of Brasov (45.6486° N, 25.6061° 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 Brasov to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 2,988 km from Brasov as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 2,669 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 4 h 01 min, although most pilgrims from Brasov connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Brasov run 1 hour behind Mecca in winter and the same time as 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 Brasov rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Brasov

On 365 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Brasov 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 10:13 local time.

The sun is never opposite the Qibla of Brasov 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 Brasov: at 12:18 and 12:27 local time, face the sun and you face the Qibla exactly, anywhere in the city.

Brasov compared with other cities

The Qibla here is practically the same as in Bucharest (149.3°), and Mecca is 136 km farther away. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Ploieşti (84 km), prays towards 149.7°, a difference of 0.1°.

Across the 20 cities in Romania on this site, the Qibla ranges from 141.8° in Timișoara to 154.8° in Iași, a spread of 13.0°. That is too large to use one national direction, so each city has its own bearing.

See all cities on the Qibla page for Romania.

Qibla in cities near Brasov

• Ploieşti149.7° · 84 km
• Piteşti147.4° · 106 km
• Buzău151.5° · 111 km
• Sibiu147.0° · 114 km
• Târgu Mureş148.5° · 128 km
• Bucharest149.3° · 141 km