Qibla direction in Pietermaritzburg

How to face the Qibla in Pietermaritzburg

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards north and move a further 11.2° towards east: the result is the bearing of 11.2°. A small error of a few degrees is forgiven by most scholars, but aiming simply at north would leave you about 11° off.

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 Pietermaritzburg to Mecca points to 10.1°, only 1.1° away from the true Qibla. Here the two methods practically agree, so a map gives a usable first idea, although the 11.2° bearing remains the exact one.

The angle on this page is the initial bearing of the great circle from 29.6168° S, 30.3928° 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 Pietermaritzburg to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 5,764 km from Pietermaritzburg as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 6,094 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 7 h 17 min, although most pilgrims from Pietermaritzburg connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

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

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Pietermaritzburg

On 365 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Pietermaritzburg 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 11:56 local time.

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

Pietermaritzburg compared with other cities

Compared with Pretoria, 482 km away, the Qibla in Pietermaritzburg is turned 3.3° further anticlockwise (11.2° against 14.5°), and Mecca is 372 km farther away. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Mpumalanga (32 km), prays towards 10.9°, a difference of 0.3°.

Across the 59 cities in South Africa on this site, the Qibla ranges from 9.4° in Richards Bay to 23.4° in Cape Town, a spread of 14.0°. That is too large to use one national direction, so each city has its own bearing.

See all cities on the Qibla page for South Africa.

Qibla in cities near Pietermaritzburg

• Mpumalanga10.9° · 32 km
• Ntuzuma10.5° · 55 km
• Durban10.4° · 67 km
• KwaDukuza10.2° · 93 km
• Ladysmith12.1° · 132 km
• Richards Bay9.4° · 185 km