Qibla direction in Astrakhan

How to face the Qibla in Astrakhan

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards south and move a further 17.8° towards west: the result is the bearing of 197.8°. A small error of a few degrees is forgiven by most scholars, but aiming simply at south would leave you about 18° off.

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 Astrakhan, faces its direction and makes a sincere effort to be accurate. Any of the mosques of Astrakhan is a handy reference, because the 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 Astrakhan to Mecca points to 195.1° (south), 2.7° away from the correct 197.8°. That map line is a rhumb line: it keeps the same compass heading all the way, but it is not 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 197.8° obtained? From the coordinates of Astrakhan (46.3497° N, 48.0408° 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 Astrakhan to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 2,870 km from Astrakhan as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 2,547 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 3 h 53 min, although most pilgrims from Astrakhan connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Astrakhan run 1 hour ahead of Mecca all year. Prayer times, however, depend on the sun at your own location, so always use the prayer times of Astrakhan rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Astrakhan

On 365 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Astrakhan 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 14:05 local time.

The sun is never opposite the Qibla of Astrakhan 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 Astrakhan: at 13:18 and 13:27 local time, face the sun and you face the Qibla exactly, anywhere in the city.

Astrakhan compared with other cities

Compared with Moscow, 1,271 km away, the Qibla in Astrakhan is turned 21.4° further clockwise (197.8° against 176.4°), and Mecca is 952 km closer. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Elista (291 km), prays towards 189.7°, a difference of 8.0°.

Across the 158 cities in Russia on this site, the Qibla ranges from 148.7° in Kaliningrad to 305.3° in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy, a spread of 156.6°. That is too large to use one national direction, so each city has its own bearing.

See all cities on the Qibla page for Russia.

Qibla in cities near Astrakhan

• Elista189.7° · 291 km
• Khasavyurt196.6° · 363 km
• Volzhsky190.0° · 365 km
• Volgograd189.4° · 374 km
• Makhachkala199.0° · 377 km
• Grozny194.4° · 385 km