Qibla direction in Nazran

How to face the Qibla in Nazran

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards south and move a further 12.3° towards west: the result is the bearing of 192.3°. A small error of a few degrees is forgiven by most scholars, but aiming simply at south would leave you about 12° 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 Nazran, faces its direction and makes a sincere effort to be accurate. Any of the mosques of Nazran 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

On a flat (Mercator) map, the straight line from Nazran to Mecca points to 190.7°, only 1.5° away from the true Qibla. Here the two methods practically agree, so a map gives a usable first idea, although the 192.3° bearing remains the exact one.

How is the figure of 192.3° obtained? From the coordinates of Nazran (43.2260° N, 44.7732° 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 Nazran to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 2,467 km from Nazran as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 2,139 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 3 h 24 min, although most pilgrims from Nazran connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Nazran 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 Nazran rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Nazran

On 365 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Nazran 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 12:53 local time.

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

Nazran compared with other cities

Compared with Moscow, 1,484 km away, the Qibla in Nazran is turned 15.9° further clockwise (192.3° against 176.4°), and Mecca is 1,354 km closer. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Vladikavkaz (22 km), prays towards 192.1°, a difference of 0.2°.

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 Nazran

• Vladikavkaz192.1° · 22 km
• Grozny194.4° · 75 km
• Nal'chik189.3° · 98 km
• Khasavyurt196.6° · 147 km
• Pyatigorsk187.8° · 166 km
• Kislovodsk187.0° · 182 km