Qibla direction in Novi Sad

How to face the Qibla in Novi Sad

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards south and move a further 41.1° towards east: the result is the bearing of 138.9°. Because the angle sits far from the cardinal points, a rough guess such as “south” would be off by more than 40°, which is why a measured bearing matters in Novi Sad.

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

A straight line drawn on a flat (Mercator) map from Novi Sad to Mecca points to 145.3° (south-east), 6.5° away from the correct 138.9°. That map line is a rhumb line: it keeps the same compass heading all the way, but it is 5 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.

The angle on this page is the initial bearing of the great circle from 45.2517° N, 19.8369° 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 Novi Sad to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 3,216 km from Novi Sad as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 2,915 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 4 h 17 min, although most pilgrims from Novi Sad connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Novi Sad run 2 hours behind Mecca in winter and 1 hour behind Mecca in summer, because of daylight saving time. Prayer times, however, depend on the sun at your own location, so always use the prayer times of Novi Sad rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Novi Sad

On 365 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Novi Sad 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 08:45 local time.

The sun is never opposite the Qibla of Novi Sad 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 Novi Sad: at 11:18 and 11:27 local time, face the sun and you face the Qibla exactly, anywhere in the city.

Novi Sad compared with other cities

Compared with Belgrade, 70 km away, the Qibla in Novi Sad is turned 0.5° further anticlockwise (138.9° against 139.4°), and Mecca is 70 km farther away. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Belgrade (70 km), prays towards 139.4°, a difference of 0.5°.

Across the 6 cities in Serbia on this site, the Qibla ranges from 138.0° in Čačak to 140.1° in Niš, a spread of 2.0°. The difference is small, yet each city should still use its own bearing.

See all cities on the Qibla page for Serbia.

Qibla in cities near Novi Sad

• Belgrade139.4° · 70 km
• Subotica139.6° · 95 km
• Čačak138.0° · 157 km
• Kragujevac139.2° · 162 km
• Niš140.1° · 270 km