# Kaaba direction from my location

The Kaaba direction — the qibla — is the great-circle bearing from where you are to the Kaaba in
Makkah at 21.4225° N, 39.8262° E, measured in degrees clockwise from **true** north. The page at
https://quranonlineread.com/qibla/kaaba-direction-from-my-location/ computes it from your device's own
location, in the browser: the coordinates are not transmitted and not stored.

## How to find the Kaaba direction from your location

1. **Allow location access.** The browser asks once. The coordinates are used for one calculation
   and discarded.
2. **Read the bearing.** Degrees clockwise from true north — 0° north, 90° east, 180° south,
   270° west — with the distance to the Kaaba in kilometres.
3. **Enable the live compass.** On a phone that reports its heading the needle tracks your
   rotation. iOS requires a deliberate tap before a web page may read the magnetometer.
4. **Check the reading.** Move away from metal and electronics, and calibrate the sensor with a
   figure-of-eight motion if the needle drifts.

## If the direction looks wrong

- **True north against magnetic north.** The bearing given is from true north. Handheld compasses
  and phone magnetometers point at magnetic north, which can be up to 20° away depending on
  location. Apply your local magnetic declination when transferring the number to a physical
  compass.
- **Metal, magnets and electronics.** Car bodies, desk frames, laptops, speakers and magnetic
  phone cases all distort the magnetic field. Steel-framed and reinforced-concrete buildings can
  bend it across a whole room.
- **An uncalibrated compass.** A drifting or slow-settling needle needs a figure-of-eight
  calibration motion.
- **A location fix that is not yours.** Without GPS the browser estimates position from the
  network, which can be tens of kilometres out and, behind a VPN, in the wrong country. The error
  barely moves the bearing at continental distances but matters near Makkah.
- **No compass in the device.** Most laptops have no magnetometer, so the needle cannot follow a
  heading. The bearing itself is still exact.

## Finding the direction without a working compass

- **By the sun.** At solar noon the sun is due south in the northern hemisphere and due north in
  the southern; a vertical object's shadow lies on the opposite line. This gives true north
  directly, with no magnetic correction.
- **By a known bearing near you.** Within a city the bearing changes by a fraction of a degree, so
  a nearby city's published figure is a sound fallback. See
  https://quranonlineread.com/qibla/ for bearings and distances by city.

## Does this work offline?

Yes, once the page has loaded. The calculation is a great-circle bearing between two points,
performed on the device — no lookup, no server. The location fix is what may need a signal: GPS
works without a data connection, network-based positioning does not.

## Common questions

**How do I find the Kaaba direction from my current location?**

Allow location access; the page returns the great-circle bearing from your coordinates to the
Kaaba at 21.4225° N, 39.8262° E, in degrees from true north, plus the distance in kilometres.

**Is the Kaaba direction the same thing as the qibla?**

Yes. The qibla is defined as the direction of the Kaaba in Makkah; the two name the same bearing.

**Why does the bearing change when I travel?**

It is a direction between two points on a sphere and one of them moves with you. Crossing a
continent can swing it by tens of degrees; over a few kilometres the change is a fraction of a
degree.

**Why does the needle point north-east if Makkah is south-east of me?**

The shortest path between two points on a globe is not a straight line on a flat map. From most of
North America and northern Europe the great-circle route to Makkah runs north of east.

**Does this page store or send my location?**

No. The coordinates are read by the browser, used for one calculation in the page, and never
transmitted or written to storage.

**What should I do if I still cannot establish the direction?**

Face the direction you judge most likely to be correct after a genuine effort to establish it.
This site does not issue rulings; for what is required of you when the direction is uncertain, ask
a qualified scholar or your local mosque.

## Related

- Qibla direction, with bearings and distances by city: https://quranonlineread.com/qibla/
- What the qibla is and how the direction is worked out: https://quranonlineread.com/learn/what-is-the-qibla/
- Prayer times by city, each with its own qibla bearing: https://quranonlineread.com/prayer-times/

## About this page

Published by: QuranOnline
Canonical page: https://quranonlineread.com/qibla/kaaba-direction-from-my-location/