Qibla direction in Anchorage

How to face the Qibla in Anchorage

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards north and move a further 9.1° towards west: the result is the bearing of 350.9°. A small error of a few degrees is forgiven by most scholars, but aiming simply at north would leave you about 9° 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 Anchorage, 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

This is a place where maps mislead badly: a straight line on a flat map from Anchorage to Mecca points to 251.8° (west), a full 99.1° away from the true Qibla of 350.9° (north). The map line keeps one compass heading and is 3,380 km longer than the great-circle route. Because the Earth is a sphere, the shortest way to Mecca from Anchorage first heads north, and that is the direction to face.

How is the figure of 350.9° obtained? From the coordinates of Anchorage (61.2181° N, 149.9003° W) 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 Anchorage to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 10,785 km from Anchorage as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 10,449 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 13 h 11 min, although most pilgrims from Anchorage connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Anchorage run 12 hours behind Mecca in winter and 11 hours behind 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 Anchorage rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Anchorage

From Anchorage the sun never rises high in the Qibla direction of 350.9°, so you cannot simply face the sun. The opposite method works instead, as the right-hand column of the table shows.

On 365 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 12:24.

Twice a year the sun passes directly over the Kaaba, on 28 May 2027 and 16 July 2027. Both happen at night in Anchorage (01:18 and 01:27 local time), so they cannot be used here. Instead, on 13 January 2027 at 12:29 and 28 November 2027 at 12:09 the sun is over the point opposite the Kaaba, and every vertical shadow in Anchorage points straight to Mecca.

Anchorage compared with other cities

Compared with Washington D.C., 5,409 km away, the Qibla in Anchorage is turned 65.7° further anticlockwise (350.9° against 56.6°), and Mecca is 151 km farther away. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Everett (2,283 km), prays towards 17.7°, a difference of 26.8°.

Among the 244 cities in the United States on this site, Anchorage has the largest Qibla bearing; the smallest is 17.2° in Hillsboro. Across the country the direction varies by 333.7°.

See all cities on the Qibla page for United States.

Qibla in cities near Anchorage

• Everett17.7° · 2,283 km
• Seattle17.6° · 2,309 km
• Kent17.7° · 2,333 km
• Tacoma17.5° · 2,334 km
• Hillsboro17.2° · 2,463 km
• Portland17.5° · 2,477 km