Qibla direction in Machiques

How to face the Qibla in Machiques

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards east and move a further 26.1° towards north: the result is the bearing of 63.9°. A small error of a few degrees is forgiven by most scholars, but aiming simply at east would leave you about 26° 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 Machiques to Mecca points to 84.0° (east), a full 20.1° away from the true Qibla of 63.9° (north-east). The map line keeps one compass heading and is 221 km longer than the great-circle route. Because the Earth is a sphere, the shortest way to Mecca from Machiques 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 10.0608° N, 72.5521° 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 Machiques to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 11,850 km from Machiques as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 11,721 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 14 h 26 min, although most pilgrims from Machiques connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Machiques 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 Machiques rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Machiques

On 133 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Machiques 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 1 May 2027 it happens at 12:03 local time.

On 232 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 17:46.

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

Machiques compared with other cities

Compared with Caracas, 622 km away, the Qibla in Machiques is turned 1.5° further anticlockwise (63.9° against 65.4°), and Mecca is 581 km farther away. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, La Concepción (100 km), prays towards 64.0°, a difference of 0.1°.

Among the 47 cities in Venezuela on this site, Machiques has the smallest Qibla bearing; the largest is 66.8° in Upata. Across the country the direction varies by 2.9°.

See all cities on the Qibla page for Venezuela.

Qibla in cities near Machiques

• La Concepción64.0° · 100 km
• Maracaibo64.0° · 122 km
• Cabimas64.2° · 126 km
• San Carlos del Zulia64.4° · 136 km
• Ciudad Ojeda64.2° · 136 km
• El Vigía64.6° · 189 km