Qibla direction in El Vigía

How to face the Qibla in El Vigía

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards east and move a further 25.4° towards north: the result is the bearing of 64.6°. A small error of a few degrees is forgiven by most scholars, but aiming simply at east would leave you about 25° off.

Scholars agree that someone who can see the Kaaba must face it exactly, while someone far away faces its direction (jihat al-Ka‘bah) as precisely as reasonably possible. If a mosque is nearby, its mihrab and prayer lines are the easiest reference, since they were set when the building was laid out. At home, mark the direction once with tape or a small arrow so the whole family prays the same way.

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 Vigía to Mecca points to 83.2° (east), a full 18.6° away from the true Qibla of 64.6° (north-east). The map line keeps one compass heading and is 198 km longer than the great-circle route. Because the Earth is a sphere, the shortest way to Mecca from El Vigía first heads north-east, and that is the direction to face.

The angle on this page is the initial bearing of the great circle from 8.6135° N, 71.6570° W to the Kaaba (21.4225° N, 39.8262° E). It is the method used by mosque architects and by every serious Qibla calculator, and it gives one exact answer for each point on Earth.

Distance from El Vigía to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 11,831 km from El Vigía as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 11,712 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 14 h 25 min, although most pilgrims from El Vigía connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in El Vigía run 7 hours behind Mecca all year. Prayer times, however, depend on the sun at your own location, so always use the prayer times of El Vigía rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in El Vigía

On 141 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of El Vigía while it is well above the horizon. At that moment, facing the sun means facing Mecca. The effect is most frequent in May (31 days); for example, on 15 April 2027 it happens at 12:36 local time.

On 224 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 17:49.

Twice a year the sun passes directly over the Kaaba, on 28 May 2027 and 16 July 2027. Both happen at night in El Vigía (05:18 and 05:27 local time), so they cannot be used here. Instead, on 13 January 2027 at 17:29 and 28 November 2027 at 17:09 the sun is over the point opposite the Kaaba, and every vertical shadow in El Vigía points straight to Mecca.

El Vigía compared with other cities

Compared with Caracas, 564 km away, the Qibla in El Vigía is turned 0.9° further anticlockwise (64.6° against 65.4°), and Mecca is 563 km farther away. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, San Carlos del Zulia (52 km), prays towards 64.4°, a difference of 0.2°.

Across the 47 cities in Venezuela on this site, the Qibla ranges from 63.9° in Machiques to 66.8° in Upata, a spread of 2.9°. The difference is small, yet each city should still use its own bearing.

See all cities on the Qibla page for Venezuela.

Qibla in cities near El Vigía

• San Carlos del Zulia64.4° · 52 km
• Mérida, Venezuela64.7° · 54 km
• San Cristóbal64.6° · 114 km
• Valera64.7° · 140 km
• Barinas64.9° · 157 km
• Ciudad Ojeda64.2° · 181 km