Qibla direction in Gothenburg

How to face the Qibla in Gothenburg

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards south and move a further 41.0° towards east: the result is the bearing of 139.0°. Because the angle sits far from the cardinal points, a rough guess such as “south” would be off by more than 40°, which is why a measured bearing matters in Gothenburg.

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. The simplest check in Gothenburg is a local mosque: its mihrab and prayer lines already point to the Qibla. See the mosques of Gothenburg. 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 Gothenburg to Mecca points to 150.4° (south-east), 11.4° away from the correct 139.0°. That map line is a rhumb line: it keeps the same compass heading all the way, but it is 20 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 57.7072° N, 11.9668° 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 Gothenburg to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 4,620 km from Gothenburg as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 4,299 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 5 h 56 min, although most pilgrims from Gothenburg connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Gothenburg 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 Gothenburg rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Gothenburg

On 309 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Gothenburg 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 1 February 2027 it happens at 09:34 local time.

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

Gothenburg compared with other cities

Compared with Stockholm, 397 km away, the Qibla in Gothenburg is turned 9.2° further anticlockwise (139.0° against 148.2°), and Mecca is 65 km farther away. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Jönköping (130 km), prays towards 141.9°, a difference of 2.9°.

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 Gothenburg

• Jönköping141.9° · 130 km
• Helsingborg138.7° · 190 km
• Linköping144.3° · 229 km
• Malmö138.8° · 242 km
• Örebro144.4° · 256 km
• Västerås146.4° · 340 km