Qibla direction in Lutsk

How to face the Qibla in Lutsk

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards south and move a further 26.5° towards east: the result is the bearing of 153.5°. 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 Lutsk, faces its direction and makes a sincere effort to be accurate. A nearby mosque is a handy reference, because its 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 Lutsk to Mecca points to 158.7° (south), 5.2° away from the correct 153.5°. That map line is a rhumb line: it keeps the same compass heading all the way, but it is 3 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 153.5° obtained? From the coordinates of Lutsk (50.7578° N, 25.3502° 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 Lutsk to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 3,497 km from Lutsk as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 3,169 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 4 h 37 min, although most pilgrims from Lutsk connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Lutsk run 1 hour behind Mecca in winter and the same time as Mecca in summer, because of daylight saving time. Prayer times, however, depend on the sun at your own location, so always use the prayer times of Lutsk rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Lutsk

On 365 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Lutsk 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 10:29 local time.

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

Lutsk compared with other cities

Compared with Kyiv, 367 km away, the Qibla in Lutsk is turned 8.9° further anticlockwise (153.5° against 162.5°), and Mecca is 168 km farther away. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Rivne (64 km), prays towards 154.9°, a difference of 1.4°.

Across the 40 cities in Ukraine on this site, the Qibla ranges from 146.6° in Uzhhorod to 178.9° in Luhansk, a spread of 32.4°. That is too large to use one national direction, so each city has its own bearing.

See all cities on the Qibla page for Ukraine.

Qibla in cities near Lutsk

• Rivne154.9° · 64 km
• Ternopil153.0° · 135 km
• Lviv150.5° · 139 km
• Khmelnytskyi155.4° · 189 km
• Ivano-Frankivsk151.0° · 209 km
• Zhytomyr159.0° · 242 km