Qibla direction in Alanya

How to face the Qibla in Alanya

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards south and move a further 26.4° towards east: the result is the bearing of 153.6°. A small error of a few degrees is forgiven by most scholars, but aiming simply at south would leave you about 26° off.

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 Alanya, faces its direction and makes a sincere effort to be accurate. Any of the mosques of Alanya is a handy reference, because the 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 Alanya to Mecca points to 155.7° (south-east), 2.1° away from the correct 153.6°. That map line is a rhumb line: it keeps the same compass heading all the way, but it is not 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 153.6° obtained? From the coordinates of Alanya (36.5438° N, 31.9998° 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 Alanya to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 1,844 km from Alanya as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 1,527 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 2 h 40 min, although most pilgrims from Alanya connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Alanya 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 Alanya rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Alanya

On 365 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Alanya 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 11:12 local time.

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

Alanya compared with other cities

Compared with Ankara, 383 km away, the Qibla in Alanya is turned 6.5° further anticlockwise (153.6° against 160.1°), and Mecca is 316 km closer. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Antalya (123 km), prays towards 150.4°, a difference of 3.2°.

Across the 85 cities in Türkiye on this site, the Qibla ranges from 143.7° in Izmir to 192.2° in Iğdır, a spread of 48.6°. That is too large to use one national direction, so each city has its own bearing.

See all cities on the Qibla page for Türkiye.

Qibla in cities near Alanya

• Antalya150.4° · 123 km
• Karaman158.2° · 129 km
• Konya156.9° · 154 km
• Silifke159.5° · 174 km
• Isparta151.3° · 187 km
• Heraclea161.1° · 211 km