Qibla direction in Murmansk

How to face the Qibla in Murmansk

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards south and move a further 8.5° towards east: the result is the bearing of 171.5°. A small error of a few degrees is forgiven by most scholars, but aiming simply at south would leave you about 8° 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 Murmansk, faces its direction and makes a sincere effort to be accurate. A nearby mosque is a handy reference, because its 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 Murmansk to Mecca points to 174.8° (south), 3.3° away from the correct 171.5°. That map line is a rhumb line: it keeps the same compass heading all the way, but it is 2 km longer than 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 171.5° obtained? From the coordinates of Murmansk (68.9678° N, 33.0992° 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 Murmansk to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 5,307 km from Murmansk as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 4,967 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 6 h 45 min, although most pilgrims from Murmansk connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Murmansk 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 Murmansk rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Murmansk

On 287 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Murmansk 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 1 February 2027 it happens at 12:26 local time.

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

Murmansk compared with other cities

Compared with Moscow, 1,487 km away, the Qibla in Murmansk is turned 4.8° further anticlockwise (171.5° against 176.4°), and Mecca is 1,485 km farther away. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Severodvinsk (572 km), prays towards 180.0°, a difference of 8.5°.

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 Murmansk

• Severodvinsk180.0° · 572 km
• Arkhangelsk181.0° · 590 km
• Petrozavodsk172.1° · 801 km
• Saint Petersburg165.9° · 1,013 km
• Kolpino166.2° · 1,032 km
• Ukhta199.0° · 1,092 km