Qibla direction in Salihli

How to face the Qibla in Salihli

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards south and move a further 33.8° towards east: the result is the bearing of 146.2°. Because the angle sits far from the cardinal points, a rough guess such as “south” would be off by more than 30°, which is why a measured bearing matters in Salihli.

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 Salihli is a local mosque: its mihrab and prayer lines already point to the Qibla. See the mosques of Salihli. 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 Salihli to Mecca points to 149.5° (south-east), 3.3° away from the correct 146.2°. 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.

The angle on this page is the initial bearing of the great circle from 38.4826° N, 28.1477° 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 Salihli to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 2,201 km from Salihli as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 1,897 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 3 h 05 min, although most pilgrims from Salihli connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Salihli 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 Salihli rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Salihli

On 365 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Salihli 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 10:53 local time.

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

Salihli compared with other cities

Compared with Ankara, 436 km away, the Qibla in Salihli is turned 13.9° further anticlockwise (146.2° against 160.1°), and Mecca is 41 km farther away. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Turgutlu (39 km), prays towards 145.1°, a difference of 1.1°.

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 Salihli

• Turgutlu145.1° · 39 km
• Manisa144.7° · 64 km
• Nazilli145.7° · 65 km
• Aydin144.4° · 76 km
• Izmir143.7° · 88 km
• Uşak149.6° · 111 km