Qibla direction in Samarkand

How to face the Qibla in Samarkand

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards west and move a further 30.2° towards south: the result is the bearing of 239.8°. Because the angle sits far from the cardinal points, a rough guess such as “west” would be off by more than 30°, which is why a measured bearing matters in Samarkand.

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 Samarkand, faces its direction and makes a sincere effort to be accurate. Any of the mosques of Samarkand 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

A straight line drawn on a flat (Mercator) map from Samarkand to Mecca points to 231.8° (south-west), 7.9° away from the correct 239.8°. That map line is a rhumb line: it keeps the same compass heading all the way, but it is 8 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 239.8° obtained? From the coordinates of Samarkand (39.6546° N, 66.9645° 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 Samarkand to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 3,273 km from Samarkand as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 3,062 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 4 h 21 min, although most pilgrims from Samarkand connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Samarkand run 2 hours ahead of Mecca all year. Prayer times, however, depend on the sun at your own location, so always use the prayer times of Samarkand rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Samarkand

On 305 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Samarkand while it is well above the horizon. At that moment, facing the sun means facing Mecca. The effect is most frequent in March (31 days); for example, on 1 February 2027 it happens at 17:00 local time.

The sun is never opposite the Qibla of Samarkand 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 Samarkand: at 14:18 and 14:27 local time, face the sun and you face the Qibla exactly, anywhere in the city.

Samarkand compared with other cities

Compared with Tashkent, 261 km away, the Qibla in Samarkand is turned 0.5° further anticlockwise (239.8° against 240.3°), and Mecca is 254 km closer. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Shahrisabz (67 km), prays towards 240.5°, a difference of 0.8°.

Across the 19 cities in Uzbekistan on this site, the Qibla ranges from 224.4° in Nukus to 244.7° in Andijan, a spread of 20.4°. That is too large to use one national direction, so each city has its own bearing.

See all cities on the Qibla page for Uzbekistan.

Qibla in cities near Samarkand

• Shahrisabz240.5° · 67 km
• Jizzakh240.2° · 91 km
• Qarshi239.4° · 134 km
• Navoiy236.9° · 143 km
• Bukhara236.1° · 217 km
• Olmaliq241.4° · 260 km