Qibla direction in Izhevsk

How to face the Qibla in Izhevsk

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards south and move a further 21.1° towards west: the result is the bearing of 201.1°. A small error of a few degrees is forgiven by most scholars, but aiming simply at south would leave you about 21° 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 Izhevsk, 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 Izhevsk to Mecca points to 195.7° (south), 5.4° away from the correct 201.1°. That map line is a rhumb line: it keeps the same compass heading all the way, but it is 4 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 201.1° obtained? From the coordinates of Izhevsk (56.8523° N, 53.1986° 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 Izhevsk to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 4,089 km from Izhevsk as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 3,763 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 5 h 19 min, although most pilgrims from Izhevsk connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Izhevsk run 1 hour ahead of Mecca all year. Prayer times, however, depend on the sun at your own location, so always use the prayer times of Izhevsk rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Izhevsk

On 365 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Izhevsk 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 14:02 local time.

The sun is never opposite the Qibla of Izhevsk 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 Izhevsk: at 13:18 and 13:27 local time, face the sun and you face the Qibla exactly, anywhere in the city.

Izhevsk compared with other cities

Compared with Moscow, 967 km away, the Qibla in Izhevsk is turned 24.7° further clockwise (201.1° against 176.4°), and Mecca is 267 km farther away. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Neftekamsk (107 km), prays towards 203.1°, a difference of 2.0°.

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 Izhevsk

• Neftekamsk203.1° · 107 km
• Naberezhnye Chelny200.4° · 133 km
• Glazov199.7° · 147 km
• Nizhnekamsk199.5° · 160 km
• Perm205.0° · 223 km
• Al'met'yevsk200.7° · 223 km