Qibla direction in Haiphong

How to face the Qibla in Haiphong

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards west and move a further 13.8° towards north: the result is the bearing of 283.8°. A small error of a few degrees is forgiven by most scholars, but aiming simply at west would leave you about 14° off.

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 Haiphong, faces its direction and makes a sincere effort to be accurate. A nearby mosque is a handy reference, because its 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 Haiphong to Mecca points to 270.5° (west), 13.3° away from the correct 283.8°. That map line is a rhumb line: it keeps the same compass heading all the way, but it is 58 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 283.8° obtained? From the coordinates of Haiphong (20.8648° N, 106.6835° 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 Haiphong to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 6,876 km from Haiphong as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 6,826 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 8 h 35 min, although most pilgrims from Haiphong connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Haiphong run 4 hours ahead of Mecca all year. Prayer times, however, depend on the sun at your own location, so always use the prayer times of Haiphong rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Haiphong

On 109 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Haiphong 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 17:47 local time.

On 192 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 March (31 days), for instance on 1 March 2027 at 07:16.

Twice a year the sun passes directly over the Kaaba, on 28 May 2027 and 16 July 2027. Both moments are in daylight in Haiphong: at 16:18 and 16:27 local time, face the sun and you face the Qibla exactly, anywhere in the city.

Haiphong compared with other cities

The Qibla here is practically the same as in Hanoi (283.6°), and Mecca is 89 km farther away. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Thị Trấn Đông Triều (30 km), prays towards 283.7°, a difference of 0.2°.

Across the 98 cities in Vietnam on this site, the Qibla ranges from 282.3° in Lao Cai to 289.4° in Ca Mau, a spread of 7.2°. That is too large to use one national direction, so each city has its own bearing.

See all cities on the Qibla page for Vietnam.

Qibla in cities near Haiphong

• Thị Trấn Đông Triều283.7° · 30 km
• Hải Dương283.7° · 37 km
• Ha Long283.9° · 42 km
• Chũ283.6° · 58 km
• Cẩm Phả283.9° · 63 km
• Thuận Thanh283.6° · 66 km