Qibla direction in Aleppo

How to face the Qibla in Aleppo

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards south and move a further 9.7° towards east: the result is the bearing of 170.3°. A small error of a few degrees is forgiven by most scholars, but aiming simply at south would leave you about 10° off.

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 Aleppo is a local mosque: its mihrab and prayer lines already point to the Qibla. See the mosques of Aleppo. 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 Aleppo to Mecca points to 171.1°, only 0.7° away from the true Qibla. Here the two methods practically agree, so a map gives a usable first idea, although the 170.3° bearing remains the exact one.

The angle on this page is the initial bearing of the great circle from 36.2012° N, 37.1612° 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 Aleppo to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 1,663 km from Aleppo as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 1,326 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 2 h 27 min, although most pilgrims from Aleppo connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Aleppo run the same time as Mecca all year. Prayer times, however, depend on the sun at your own location, so always use the prayer times of Aleppo rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Aleppo

On 365 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Aleppo while it is well above the horizon. At that moment, facing the sun means facing Mecca. The effect is most frequent in January (31 days); for example, on 1 January 2027 it happens at 11:59 local time.

The sun is never opposite the Qibla of Aleppo 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 Aleppo: at 12:18 and 12:27 local time, face the sun and you face the Qibla exactly, anywhere in the city.

Aleppo compared with other cities

Compared with Damascus, 310 km away, the Qibla in Aleppo is turned 5.7° further clockwise (170.3° against 164.6°), and Mecca is 275 km farther away. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Al Bāb (37 km), prays towards 171.7°, a difference of 1.4°.

Across the 12 cities in Syria on this site, the Qibla ranges from 164.6° in Tartus to 184.8° in Al-Qamishli, a spread of 20.3°. That is too large to use one national direction, so each city has its own bearing.

See all cities on the Qibla page for Syria.

Qibla in cities near Aleppo

• Al Bāb171.7° · 37 km
• Idlib168.3° · 56 km
• Hama168.1° · 124 km
• Latakia164.9° · 144 km
• Raqqa177.0° · 168 km
• Homs167.6° · 169 km