Qibla direction in En Nahud

How to face the Qibla in En Nahud

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards east and move a further 40.3° towards north: the result is the bearing of 49.7°. 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 En Nahud.

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 En Nahud to Mecca points to 51.3°, only 1.5° away from the true Qibla. Here the two methods practically agree, so a map gives a usable first idea, although the 49.7° bearing remains the exact one.

The angle on this page is the initial bearing of the great circle from 12.7000° N, 28.4333° 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 En Nahud to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 1,550 km from En Nahud as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 1,759 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 2 h 19 min, although most pilgrims from En Nahud connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in En Nahud 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 En Nahud rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in En Nahud

On 118 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of En Nahud 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 11:52 local time.

On 247 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 15:01.

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

En Nahud compared with other cities

Compared with Khartoum, 544 km away, the Qibla in En Nahud is turned 1.2° further clockwise (49.7° against 48.6°), and Mecca is 542 km farther away. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Al-Ubayyid (201 km), prays towards 46.7°, 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 En Nahud

• Al-Ubayyid46.7° · 201 km
• El Daein51.0° · 286 km
• Al-Fashir58.5° · 349 km
• Gereida52.3° · 392 km
• Nyala54.8° · 393 km
• Kūstī38.6° · 461 km