Qibla direction in Uppsala

How to face the Qibla in Uppsala

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards south and move a further 32.0° towards east: the result is the bearing of 148.0°. 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 Uppsala.

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

A straight line drawn on a flat (Mercator) map from Uppsala to Mecca points to 157.4° (south-east), 9.4° away from the correct 148.0°. That map line is a rhumb line: it keeps the same compass heading all the way, but it is 13 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 59.8588° N, 17.6389° 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 Uppsala to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 4,617 km from Uppsala as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 4,287 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 5 h 56 min, although most pilgrims from Uppsala connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Uppsala 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 Uppsala rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Uppsala

On 327 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Uppsala 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 09:41 local time.

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

Uppsala compared with other cities

The Qibla here is practically the same as in Stockholm (148.2°), and Mecca is 63 km farther away. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Stockholm (64 km), prays towards 148.2°, a difference of 0.3°.

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 Uppsala

• Stockholm148.2° · 64 km
• Västerås146.4° · 67 km
• Örebro144.4° · 152 km
• Linköping144.3° · 198 km
• Jönköping141.9° · 306 km
• Gothenburg139.0° · 405 km