Qibla direction in Esenyurt

How to face the Qibla in Esenyurt

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards south and move a further 29.1° towards east: the result is the bearing of 150.9°. A small error of a few degrees is forgiven by most scholars, but aiming simply at south would leave you about 29° 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 Esenyurt, faces its direction and makes a sincere effort to be accurate. Any of the mosques of Esenyurt 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 Esenyurt to Mecca points to 154.3° (south-east), 3.3° away from the correct 150.9°. That map line is a rhumb line: it keeps the same compass heading all the way, but it is 1 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.

How is the figure of 150.9° obtained? From the coordinates of Esenyurt (41.0270° N, 28.6773° 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 Esenyurt to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 2,419 km from Esenyurt as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 2,102 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 3 h 21 min, although most pilgrims from Esenyurt connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Esenyurt 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 Esenyurt rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Esenyurt

On 365 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Esenyurt 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 11:10 local time.

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

Esenyurt compared with other cities

Compared with Ankara, 374 km away, the Qibla in Esenyurt is turned 9.2° further anticlockwise (150.9° against 160.1°), and Mecca is 259 km farther away. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Arnavutköy (18 km), prays towards 151.3°, a difference of 0.3°.

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 Esenyurt

• Arnavutköy151.3° · 18 km
• Istanbul151.6° · 23 km
• Sancaktepe152.2° · 47 km
• Gebze152.4° · 68 km
• Çorlu149.1° · 75 km
• Bandırma148.5° · 95 km