Qibla direction in Velikiye Luki

How to face the Qibla in Velikiye Luki

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards south and move a further 15.0° towards east: the result is the bearing of 165.0°. A small error of a few degrees is forgiven by most scholars, but aiming simply at south would leave you about 15° 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 Velikiye Luki, 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 Velikiye Luki to Mecca points to 168.7° (south), 3.7° away from the correct 165.0°. 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 165.0° obtained? From the coordinates of Velikiye Luki (56.3406° N, 30.5438° 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 Velikiye Luki to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 3,957 km from Velikiye Luki as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 3,620 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 5 h 09 min, although most pilgrims from Velikiye Luki connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Velikiye Luki 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 Velikiye Luki rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Velikiye Luki

On 365 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Velikiye Luki 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 11:57 local time.

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

Velikiye Luki compared with other cities

Compared with Moscow, 444 km away, the Qibla in Velikiye Luki is turned 11.3° further anticlockwise (165.0° against 176.4°), and Mecca is 136 km farther away. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Smolensk (198 km), prays towards 166.9°, a difference of 1.9°.

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 Velikiye Luki

• Smolensk166.9° · 198 km
• Pskov162.2° · 212 km
• Veliky Novgorod166.9° · 246 km
• Tver'173.7° · 333 km
• Kolpino166.2° · 379 km
• Saint Petersburg165.9° · 400 km