Qibla direction in Modesto

How to face the Qibla in Modesto

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards north and move a further 20.3° towards east: the result is the bearing of 20.3°. A small error of a few degrees is forgiven by most scholars, but aiming simply at north would leave you about 20° 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 Modesto, 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 Modesto to Mecca points to 96.6° (east), a full 76.3° away from the true Qibla of 20.3° (north). The map line keeps one compass heading and is 2,431 km longer than the great-circle route. Because the Earth is a sphere, the shortest way to Mecca from Modesto first heads north, and that is the direction to face.

The value of 20.3° is the direction in which the shortest route from 37.6391° N, 120.9969° 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 Modesto to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 13,148 km from Modesto as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 12,818 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 15 h 58 min, although most pilgrims from Modesto connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Modesto 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 Modesto rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Modesto

From Modesto the sun never rises high in the Qibla direction of 20.3°, 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 13:26.

Twice a year the sun passes directly over the Kaaba, on 28 May 2027 and 16 July 2027. Both happen at night in Modesto (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 Modesto points straight to Mecca.

Modesto compared with other cities

Compared with Washington D.C., 3,803 km away, the Qibla in Modesto is turned 36.3° further anticlockwise (20.3° against 56.6°), and Mecca is 2,515 km farther away. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Stockton (44 km), prays towards 20.0°, a difference of 0.4°.

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 Modesto

• Stockton20.0° · 44 km
• Antioch19.4° · 82 km
• San Jose, California, United States19.5° · 86 km
• Fremont19.3° · 88 km
• Elk Grove19.8° · 92 km
• Hayward19.2° · 95 km