Qibla direction in Linköping

How to face the Qibla in Linköping

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards south and move a further 35.7° towards east: the result is the bearing of 144.3°. Because the angle sits far from the cardinal points, a rough guess such as “south” would be off by more than 30°, which is why a measured bearing matters in Linköping.

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 Linköping, 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 Linköping to Mecca points to 154.4° (south-east), 10.0° away from the correct 144.3°. That map line is a rhumb line: it keeps the same compass heading all the way, but it is 15 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 144.3° obtained? From the coordinates of Linköping (58.4109° N, 15.6216° 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 Linköping to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 4,548 km from Linköping as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 4,221 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 5 h 51 min, although most pilgrims from Linköping connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Linköping run 2 hours behind Mecca in winter and 1 hour behind Mecca in summer, because of daylight saving time. Prayer times, however, depend on the sun at your own location, so always use the prayer times of Linköping rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Linköping

On 327 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Linköping while it is well above the horizon. At that moment, facing the sun means facing Mecca. The effect is most frequent in March (31 days); for example, on 15 January 2027 it happens at 09:33 local time.

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

Linköping compared with other cities

Compared with Stockholm, 174 km away, the Qibla in Linköping is turned 3.9° further anticlockwise (144.3° against 148.2°), and Mecca is 7 km closer. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Örebro (99 km), prays towards 144.4°, the same bearing to the tenth of a degree.

Across the 10 cities in Sweden on this site, the Qibla ranges from 138.7° in Helsingborg to 153.5° in Umeå, a spread of 14.8°. That is too large to use one national direction, so each city has its own bearing.

See all cities on the Qibla page for Sweden.

Qibla in cities near Linköping

• Örebro144.4° · 99 km
• Jönköping141.9° · 111 km
• Västerås146.4° · 144 km
• Stockholm148.2° · 174 km
• Uppsala148.0° · 198 km
• Gothenburg139.0° · 229 km