Qibla direction in Moratuwa

How to face the Qibla in Moratuwa

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards west and move a further 24.9° towards north: the result is the bearing of 294.9°. A small error of a few degrees is forgiven by most scholars, but aiming simply at west would leave you about 25° 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. The simplest check in Moratuwa is a local mosque: its mihrab and prayer lines already point to the Qibla. See the mosques of Moratuwa. 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 Moratuwa to Mecca points to 290.7° (west), 4.2° away from the correct 294.9°. That map line is a rhumb line: it keeps the same compass heading all the way, but it is 6 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 6.7730° N, 79.8816° 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 Moratuwa to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 4,598 km from Moratuwa as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 4,714 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 5 h 55 min, although most pilgrims from Moratuwa connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Moratuwa run 2.5 hours ahead of Mecca all year. Prayer times, however, depend on the sun at your own location, so always use the prayer times of Moratuwa rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Moratuwa

On 150 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Moratuwa while it is well above the horizon. At that moment, facing the sun means facing Mecca. The effect is most frequent in May (31 days); for example, on 15 April 2027 it happens at 12:37 local time.

On 214 days the sun stands exactly opposite the Qibla: then the shadow of any vertical object, a pole, a door frame or a plumb line, points straight towards Mecca. This is most frequent in January (31 days), for instance on 1 January 2027 at 07:10.

Twice a year the sun passes directly over the Kaaba, on 28 May 2027 and 16 July 2027. Both moments are in daylight in Moratuwa: at 14:48 and 14:57 local time, face the sun and you face the Qibla exactly, anywhere in the city.

Moratuwa compared with other cities

The Qibla here is practically the same as in Colombo, Western Province, Sri Lanka (294.8°), and Mecca is 11 km farther away. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Colombo, Western Province, Sri Lanka (18 km), prays towards 294.8°, a difference of 0.2°.

Among the 7 cities in Sri Lanka on this site, Moratuwa has the largest Qibla bearing; the smallest is 291.8° in Jaffna. Across the country the direction varies by 3.1°.

See all cities on the Qibla page for Sri Lanka.

Qibla in cities near Moratuwa

• Colombo, Western Province, Sri Lanka294.8° · 18 km
• Negombo294.5° · 49 km
• Kandy294.2° · 101 km
• Kalmunai293.7° · 227 km
• Trincomalee292.7° · 250 km
• Jaffna291.8° · 322 km