Qibla direction in Makhachkala

How to face the Qibla in Makhachkala

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards south and move a further 19.0° towards west: the result is the bearing of 199.0°. A small error of a few degrees is forgiven by most scholars, but aiming simply at south would leave you about 19° 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 Makhachkala is a local mosque: its mihrab and prayer lines already point to the Qibla. See the mosques of Makhachkala. 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 Makhachkala to Mecca points to 196.6° (south), 2.4° away from the correct 199.0°. 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.

The angle on this page is the initial bearing of the great circle from 42.9778° N, 47.5003° 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 Makhachkala to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 2,500 km from Makhachkala as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 2,181 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 3 h 27 min, although most pilgrims from Makhachkala connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Makhachkala 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 Makhachkala rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Makhachkala

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

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

Makhachkala compared with other cities

Compared with Moscow, 1,587 km away, the Qibla in Makhachkala is turned 22.6° further clockwise (199.0° against 176.4°), and Mecca is 1,321 km closer. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Khasavyurt (80 km), prays towards 196.6°, a difference of 2.4°.

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 Makhachkala

• Khasavyurt196.6° · 80 km
• Derbent201.6° · 120 km
• Grozny194.4° · 152 km
• Nazran192.3° · 223 km
• Vladikavkaz192.1° · 230 km
• Nal'chik189.3° · 320 km