Qibla direction in Somerset West

How to face the Qibla in Somerset West

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards north and move a further 22.9° towards east: the result is the bearing of 22.9°. A small error of a few degrees is forgiven by most scholars, but aiming simply at north would leave you about 23° 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 Somerset West, 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 Somerset West to Mecca points to 19.8° (north), 3.1° away from the correct 22.9°. That map line is a rhumb line: it keeps the same compass heading all the way, but it is 1 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 22.9° obtained? From the coordinates of Somerset West (34.0840° S, 18.8211° 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 Somerset West to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 6,560 km from Somerset West as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 6,871 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 8 h 13 min, although most pilgrims from Somerset West connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Somerset West 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 Somerset West rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Somerset West

On 365 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Somerset West 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 12:28 local time.

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

Somerset West compared with other cities

Compared with Pretoria, 1,293 km away, the Qibla in Somerset West is turned 8.4° further clockwise (22.9° against 14.5°), and Mecca is 1,167 km farther away. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Cape Town (41 km), prays towards 23.4°, a difference of 0.4°.

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 Somerset West

• Cape Town23.4° · 41 km
• Paarl22.8° · 41 km
• Worcester, Western Cape, South Africa22.4° · 76 km
• George19.2° · 336 km
• Uitenhage16.1° · 608 km
• Motherwell15.9° · 625 km