Qibla direction in Nizhnevartovsk

How to face the Qibla in Nizhnevartovsk

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards west and move a further 40.5° towards south: the result is the bearing of 229.5°. Because the angle sits far from the cardinal points, a rough guess such as “west” would be off by more than 40°, which is why a measured bearing matters in Nizhnevartovsk.

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. If a mosque is nearby, its mihrab and prayer lines are the easiest reference, since they were set when the building was laid out. 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

This is a place where maps mislead badly: a straight line on a flat map from Nizhnevartovsk to Mecca points to 213.5° (south-west), a full 16.0° away from the true Qibla of 229.5° (south-west). The map line keeps one compass heading and is 42 km longer than the great-circle route. Because the Earth is a sphere, the shortest way to Mecca from Nizhnevartovsk first heads south-west, and that is the direction to face.

The angle on this page is the initial bearing of the great circle from 60.9344° N, 76.5531° 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 Nizhnevartovsk to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 5,229 km from Nizhnevartovsk as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 4,928 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 6 h 39 min, although most pilgrims from Nizhnevartovsk connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Nizhnevartovsk run 2 hours ahead of Mecca all year. Prayer times, however, depend on the sun at your own location, so always use the prayer times of Nizhnevartovsk rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Nizhnevartovsk

On 271 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Nizhnevartovsk while it is well above the horizon. At that moment, facing the sun means facing Mecca. The effect is most frequent in March (31 days); for example, on 15 February 2027 it happens at 15:31 local time.

On 50 days the sun stands exactly opposite the Qibla: then the shadow of any vertical object, a pole, a door frame or a plumb line, points straight towards Mecca. This is most frequent in June (30 days), for instance on 1 June 2027 at 03:31.

Twice a year the sun passes directly over the Kaaba, on 28 May 2027 and 16 July 2027. Both moments are in daylight in Nizhnevartovsk: at 14:18 and 14:27 local time, face the sun and you face the Qibla exactly, anywhere in the city.

Nizhnevartovsk compared with other cities

Compared with Moscow, 2,307 km away, the Qibla in Nizhnevartovsk is turned 53.2° further clockwise (229.5° against 176.4°), and Mecca is 1,407 km farther away. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Surgut (172 km), prays towards 225.6°, a difference of 3.9°.

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 Nizhnevartovsk

• Surgut225.6° · 172 km
• Nefteyugansk224.7° · 214 km
• Noyabrsk226.7° · 258 km
• Khanty-Mansiysk220.4° · 406 km
• Tobolsk221.4° · 557 km
• Omsk230.4° · 687 km