Qibla direction in Mpanda

How to face the Qibla in Mpanda

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards north and move a further 17.0° towards east: the result is the bearing of 17.0°. A small error of a few degrees is forgiven by most scholars, but aiming simply at north would leave you about 17° 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. 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 Mpanda to Mecca points to 17.2°, only 0.2° away from the true Qibla. Here the two methods practically agree, so a map gives a usable first idea, although the 17.0° bearing remains the exact one.

The angle on this page is the initial bearing of the great circle from 6.3438° S, 31.0695° 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 Mpanda to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 3,232 km from Mpanda as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 3,549 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 4 h 18 min, although most pilgrims from Mpanda connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Mpanda 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 Mpanda rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Mpanda

On 219 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Mpanda 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 15 March 2027 it happens at 13:00 local time.

On 146 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 13:21.

Twice a year the sun passes directly over the Kaaba, on 28 May 2027 and 16 July 2027. Both moments are in daylight in Mpanda: at 12:18 and 12:27 local time, face the sun and you face the Qibla exactly, anywhere in the city.

Mpanda compared with other cities

Compared with Dodoma, 517 km away, the Qibla in Mpanda is turned 8.8° further clockwise (17.0° against 8.2°), and Mecca is 131 km farther away. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Sumbawanga (190 km), prays towards 15.2°, a difference of 1.8°.

Across the 34 cities in Tanzania on this site, the Qibla ranges from 1.1° in Dar es Salaam to 359.4° in Mtwara, a spread of 358.3°. That is too large to use one national direction, so each city has its own bearing.

See all cities on the Qibla page for Tanzania.

Qibla in cities near Mpanda

• Sumbawanga15.2° · 190 km
• Kasulu19.8° · 224 km
• Kigoma20.5° · 228 km
• Tabora14.3° · 244 km
• Kahama15.4° · 327 km
• Nzega14.0° · 333 km