Qibla direction in Khasavyurt

How to face the Qibla in Khasavyurt

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards south and move a further 16.6° towards west: the result is the bearing of 196.6°. A small error of a few degrees is forgiven by most scholars, but aiming simply at south would leave you about 17° 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 Khasavyurt, faces its direction and makes a sincere effort to be accurate. Any of the mosques of Khasavyurt 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 Khasavyurt to Mecca points to 194.5° (south), 2.1° away from the correct 196.6°. 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 196.6° obtained? From the coordinates of Khasavyurt (43.2487° N, 46.5857° 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 Khasavyurt to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 2,506 km from Khasavyurt as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 2,183 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 3 h 27 min, although most pilgrims from Khasavyurt connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Khasavyurt 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 Khasavyurt rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Khasavyurt

On 365 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Khasavyurt 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 13:04 local time.

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

Khasavyurt compared with other cities

Compared with Moscow, 1,531 km away, the Qibla in Khasavyurt is turned 20.3° further clockwise (196.6° against 176.4°), and Mecca is 1,315 km closer. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Grozny (73 km), prays towards 194.4°, 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 Khasavyurt

• Grozny194.4° · 73 km
• Makhachkala199.0° · 80 km
• Nazran192.3° · 147 km
• Vladikavkaz192.1° · 157 km
• Derbent201.6° · 191 km
• Nal'chik189.3° · 241 km