Qibla direction in Gedaref

How to face the Qibla in Gedaref

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards north and move a further 29.2° towards east: the result is the bearing of 29.2°. A small error of a few degrees is forgiven by most scholars, but aiming simply at north would leave you about 29° 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 Gedaref to Mecca points to 29.8°, only 0.6° away from the true Qibla. Here the two methods practically agree, so a map gives a usable first idea, although the 29.2° bearing remains the exact one.

The angle on this page is the initial bearing of the great circle from 14.0349° N, 35.3834° 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 Gedaref to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 946 km from Gedaref as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 1,242 km away. The distance is short enough that many pilgrims from Gedaref travel to the Hijaz by road.

Clocks in Gedaref 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 Gedaref rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Gedaref

On 110 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Gedaref 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 1 May 2027 it happens at 11:33 local time.

On 255 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 13:05.

Twice a year the sun passes directly over the Kaaba, on 28 May 2027 and 16 July 2027. Both moments are in daylight in Gedaref: at 11:18 and 11:27 local time, face the sun and you face the Qibla exactly, anywhere in the city.

Gedaref compared with other cities

Compared with Khartoum, 350 km away, the Qibla in Gedaref is turned 19.4° further anticlockwise (29.2° against 48.6°), and Mecca is 62 km closer. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Singa (185 km), prays towards 33.4°, a difference of 4.2°.

Across the 18 cities in Sudan on this site, the Qibla ranges from 27.8° in Ad-Damazin to 61.9° in Geneina, a spread of 34.1°. That is too large to use one national direction, so each city has its own bearing.

See all cities on the Qibla page for Sudan.

Qibla in cities near Gedaref

• Singa33.4° · 185 km
• Kassala28.0° · 192 km
• Sennar36.3° · 203 km
• Wad Madani39.6° · 205 km
• Al Manāqil41.2° · 259 km
• Ad-Damazin27.8° · 273 km