Qibla direction in Craiova

How to face the Qibla in Craiova

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards south and move a further 35.2° towards east: the result is the bearing of 144.8°. 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 Craiova.

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 Craiova to Mecca points to 149.9° (south-east), 5.1° away from the correct 144.8°. That map line is a rhumb line: it keeps the same compass heading all the way, but it is 3 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 44.3167° N, 23.8000° 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 Craiova to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 2,941 km from Craiova as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 2,631 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 3 h 58 min, although most pilgrims from Craiova connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Craiova 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 Craiova rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Craiova

On 365 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Craiova 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 09:59 local time.

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

Craiova compared with other cities

Compared with Bucharest, 184 km away, the Qibla in Craiova is turned 4.6° further anticlockwise (144.8° against 149.3°), and Mecca is 89 km farther away. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Piteşti (103 km), prays towards 147.4°, a difference of 2.6°.

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 Craiova

• Piteşti147.4° · 103 km
• Sibiu147.0° · 167 km
• Bucharest149.3° · 184 km
• Ploieşti149.7° · 189 km
• Brasov149.6° · 205 km
• Târgu Mureş148.5° · 254 km