Qibla direction in Atlanta

How to face the Qibla in Atlanta

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards east and move a further 37.7° towards north: the result is the bearing of 52.3°. Because the angle sits far from the cardinal points, a rough guess such as “east” would be off by more than 30°, which is why a measured bearing matters in Atlanta.

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 Atlanta, faces its direction and makes a sincere effort to be accurate. Any of the mosques of Atlanta is a handy reference, because the 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 Atlanta to Mecca points to 96.4° (east), a full 44.1° away from the true Qibla of 52.3° (north-east). The map line keeps one compass heading and is 781 km longer than the great-circle route. Because the Earth is a sphere, the shortest way to Mecca from Atlanta first heads north-east, and that is the direction to face.

How is the figure of 52.3° obtained? From the coordinates of Atlanta (33.7490° N, 84.3880° 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 Atlanta to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 11,501 km from Atlanta as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 11,246 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 14 h 02 min, although most pilgrims from Atlanta connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Atlanta run 8 hours behind Mecca in winter and 7 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 Atlanta rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Atlanta

From Atlanta the sun never rises high in the Qibla direction of 52.3°, 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 16:31.

Twice a year the sun passes directly over the Kaaba, on 28 May 2027 and 16 July 2027. Both happen at night in Atlanta (05:18 and 05:27 local time), so they cannot be used here. Instead, on 13 January 2027 at 16:29 and 28 November 2027 at 16:09 the sun is over the point opposite the Kaaba, and every vertical shadow in Atlanta points straight to Mecca.

Atlanta compared with other cities

Compared with Washington D.C., 872 km away, the Qibla in Atlanta is turned 4.2° further anticlockwise (52.3° against 56.6°), and Mecca is 868 km farther away. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Sandy Springs (20 km), prays towards 52.3°, the same bearing to the tenth of a degree.

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 Atlanta

• Sandy Springs52.3° · 20 km
• South Fulton52.2° · 32 km
• Athens, Georgia, United States53.0° · 96 km
• Columbus, Georgia, United States52.2° · 154 km
• Chattanooga51.4° · 167 km
• Birmingham, Alabama, United States50.7° · 225 km