Qibla direction in El Cajon

How to face the Qibla in El Cajon

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards north and move a further 25.5° towards east: the result is the bearing of 25.5°. A small error of a few degrees is forgiven by most scholars, but aiming simply at north would leave you about 25° off.

The scholars distinguish two cases: the one who sees the Kaaba aims at the building itself, while the one who cannot see it, as anywhere in El Cajon, aims at its direction as well as he reasonably can. Comparing with the mihrab of a local mosque is a quick way to confirm the result. If you travel or move house, check the angle again, since it changes from place to place.

Why a flat map shows a different direction

This is a place where maps mislead badly: a straight line on a flat map from El Cajon to Mecca points to 94.7° (east), a full 69.2° away from the true Qibla of 25.5° (north-east). The map line keeps one compass heading and is 2,030 km longer than the great-circle route. Because the Earth is a sphere, the shortest way to Mecca from El Cajon first heads north-east, and that is the direction to face.

The value of 25.5° is the direction in which the shortest route from 32.7948° N, 116.9625° W sets off towards the Kaaba at 21.4225° N, 39.8262° E. Every accurate Qibla calculator, and the plans of well-oriented mosques, arrive at the same angle for this point.

Distance from El Cajon to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 13,502 km from El Cajon as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 13,181 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 16 h 23 min, although most pilgrims from El Cajon connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in El Cajon run 11 hours behind Mecca in winter and 10 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 El Cajon rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in El Cajon

From El Cajon the sun never rises high in the Qibla direction of 25.5°, 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 13:27.

Twice a year the sun passes directly over the Kaaba, on 28 May 2027 and 16 July 2027. Both happen at night in El Cajon (02:18 and 02:27 local time), so they cannot be used here. Instead, on 13 January 2027 at 13:29 and 28 November 2027 at 13:09 the sun is over the point opposite the Kaaba, and every vertical shadow in El Cajon points straight to Mecca.

El Cajon compared with other cities

Compared with Washington D.C., 3,633 km away, the Qibla in El Cajon is turned 31.1° further anticlockwise (25.5° against 56.6°), and Mecca is 2,869 km farther away. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, San Diego (21 km), prays towards 25.3°, a difference of 0.2°.

Across the 244 cities in the United States on this site, the Qibla ranges from 17.2° in Hillsboro to 350.9° in Anchorage, a spread of 333.7°. That is too large to use one national direction, so each city has its own bearing.

See all cities on the Qibla page for United States.

Qibla in cities near El Cajon

• San Diego25.3° · 21 km
• Escondido25.3° · 38 km
• Oceanside24.9° · 59 km
• Temecula25.1° · 80 km
• Irvine24.4° · 126 km
• Moreno Valley24.9° · 129 km