Qibla direction in Grozny

How to face the Qibla in Grozny

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards south and move a further 14.4° towards west: the result is the bearing of 194.4°. A small error of a few degrees is forgiven by most scholars, but aiming simply at south would leave you about 14° off.

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. The simplest check in Grozny is a local mosque: its mihrab and prayer lines already point to the Qibla. See the mosques of Grozny. 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

On a flat (Mercator) map, the straight line from Grozny to Mecca points to 192.6°, only 1.8° away from the true Qibla. Here the two methods practically agree, so a map gives a usable first idea, although the 194.4° bearing remains the exact one.

The angle on this page is the initial bearing of the great circle from 43.3120° N, 45.6890° 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 Grozny to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 2,494 km from Grozny as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 2,168 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 3 h 26 min, although most pilgrims from Grozny connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Grozny run the same time as Mecca all year. Prayer times, however, depend on the sun at your own location, so always use the prayer times of Grozny rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Grozny

On 365 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Grozny 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 12:59 local time.

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

Grozny compared with other cities

Compared with Moscow, 1,499 km away, the Qibla in Grozny is turned 18.1° further clockwise (194.4° against 176.4°), and Mecca is 1,328 km closer. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Khasavyurt (73 km), prays towards 196.6°, a difference of 2.2°.

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 Grozny

• Khasavyurt196.6° · 73 km
• Nazran192.3° · 75 km
• Vladikavkaz192.1° · 88 km
• Makhachkala199.0° · 152 km
• Nal'chik189.3° · 169 km
• Pyatigorsk187.8° · 227 km