Qibla direction in Nizhny Novgorod

How to face the Qibla in Nizhny Novgorod

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards south and move a further 6.8° towards west: the result is the bearing of 186.8°. The direction is close to due south, which makes it easy to remember.

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

On a flat (Mercator) map, the straight line from Nizhny Novgorod to Mecca points to 185.1°, only 1.7° away from the true Qibla. Here the two methods practically agree, so a map gives a usable first idea, although the 186.8° bearing remains the exact one.

The angle on this page is the initial bearing of the great circle from 56.3287° N, 44.0021° 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 Nizhny Novgorod to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 3,897 km from Nizhny Novgorod as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 3,561 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 5 h 05 min, although most pilgrims from Nizhny Novgorod connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Nizhny Novgorod 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 Nizhny Novgorod rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Nizhny Novgorod

On 365 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Nizhny Novgorod 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 12:36 local time.

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

Nizhny Novgorod compared with other cities

Compared with Moscow, 402 km away, the Qibla in Nizhny Novgorod is turned 10.4° further clockwise (186.8° against 176.4°), and Mecca is 75 km farther away. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Dzerzhinsk (35 km), prays towards 185.9°, a difference of 0.9°.

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 Nizhny Novgorod

• Dzerzhinsk185.9° · 35 km
• Arzamas186.7° · 104 km
• Murom183.6° · 149 km
• Kovrov182.4° · 165 km
• Ivanovo181.8° · 200 km
• Cheboksary192.1° · 202 km