Qibla direction in Al-Ubayyid

How to face the Qibla in Al-Ubayyid

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards east and move a further 43.3° towards north: the result is the bearing of 46.7°. Because the angle sits far from the cardinal points, a rough guess such as “east” would be off by more than 40°, which is why a measured bearing matters in Al-Ubayyid.

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 Al-Ubayyid to Mecca points to 48.0°, only 1.3° away from the true Qibla. Here the two methods practically agree, so a map gives a usable first idea, although the 46.7° bearing remains the exact one.

The angle on this page is the initial bearing of the great circle from 13.1842° N, 30.2167° 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 Al-Ubayyid to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 1,370 km from Al-Ubayyid as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 1,596 km away. The distance is short enough that many pilgrims from Al-Ubayyid travel to the Hijaz by road.

Clocks in Al-Ubayyid 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 Al-Ubayyid rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Al-Ubayyid

On 114 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Al-Ubayyid 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 11:48 local time.

On 249 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 14:38.

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

Al-Ubayyid compared with other cities

Compared with Khartoum, 363 km away, the Qibla in Al-Ubayyid is turned 1.8° further anticlockwise (46.7° against 48.6°), and Mecca is 362 km farther away. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, En Nahud (201 km), prays towards 49.7°, a difference of 3.0°.

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 Al-Ubayyid

• En Nahud49.7° · 201 km
• Kūstī38.6° · 265 km
• Al Manāqil41.2° · 322 km
• Khartoum48.6° · 363 km
• Sennar36.3° · 365 km
• Wad Madani39.6° · 382 km