Qibla direction in Vladivostok

How to face the Qibla in Vladivostok

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards west and move a further 17.3° towards north: the result is the bearing of 287.3°. A small error of a few degrees is forgiven by most scholars, but aiming simply at west would leave you about 17° 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 Vladivostok, 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

This is a place where maps mislead badly: a straight line on a flat map from Vladivostok to Mecca points to 254.3° (west), a full 33.0° away from the true Qibla of 287.3° (west). The map line keeps one compass heading and is 334 km longer than the great-circle route. Because the Earth is a sphere, the shortest way to Mecca from Vladivostok first heads west, and that is the direction to face.

How is the figure of 287.3° obtained? From the coordinates of Vladivostok (43.1056° N, 131.8735° 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 Vladivostok to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 8,560 km from Vladivostok as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 8,353 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 10 h 34 min, although most pilgrims from Vladivostok connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Vladivostok run 7 hours ahead of Mecca all year. Prayer times, however, depend on the sun at your own location, so always use the prayer times of Vladivostok rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Vladivostok

On 104 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Vladivostok while it is well above the horizon. At that moment, facing the sun means facing Mecca. The effect is most frequent in May (31 days); for example, on 1 May 2027 it happens at 19:47 local time.

On 240 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 March (31 days), for instance on 1 March 2027 at 08:32.

Twice a year the sun passes directly over the Kaaba, on 28 May 2027 and 16 July 2027. Both moments are in daylight in Vladivostok: at 19:18 and 19:27 local time, face the sun and you face the Qibla exactly, anywhere in the city.

Vladivostok compared with other cities

Compared with Moscow, 6,416 km away, the Qibla in Vladivostok is turned 110.9° further clockwise (287.3° against 176.4°), and Mecca is 4,738 km farther away. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Artyom (38 km), prays towards 287.4°, a difference of 0.1°.

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 Vladivostok

• Artyom287.4° · 38 km
• Ussuriysk287.2° · 78 km
• Nakhodka288.0° · 90 km
• Khabarovsk288.3° · 646 km
• Blagoveshchensk282.4° · 863 km
• Komsomolsk-on-Amur289.2° · 915 km