Qibla direction from the USA: northeast or southeast?

Ask someone in the United States which way Mecca lies, and many will point east or southeast. Open a typical Qibla app in the same place, and the arrow points toward the northeast. New Muslims, visitors and people setting up a prayer space at home or at work are often surprised by the difference. It comes down to a simple question with a long history: should the direction be read from a globe or from a flat map?

This page explains both views neutrally. It is general background, not a ruling. The Qibla, the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca that Muslims face in Salah, is something your local mosque and community have already considered, and their practice is the practical reference. AyahFlow, the Quran and Salah app we build at BRUNIQO, shows a Qibla direction as an estimate based on your settings and your device's sensors.

Why a flat map is misleading

Most wall maps use a projection that keeps compass directions consistent but stretches the far north and south. On such a map, a straight line from the US to Mecca runs east and slightly south, because Mecca lies at a lower latitude than most of the country. That line follows a constant compass bearing, but it is not the shortest route over the Earth's surface.

The shortest route between two points on a globe follows a great circle. From the eastern US, that route leaves toward the northeast and curves northward across the Atlantic before descending toward Arabia. You have probably seen the same effect on flight maps, where long-haul routes appear as arcs on a flat screen. Stretch a string between New York and Mecca on a desk globe, and the string leaves New York heading northeast.

Great-circle bearings from US cities

The table shows the approximate great-circle direction to the Kaaba from several US cities, measured clockwise from true north, where 0 degrees is north and 90 degrees is east. We calculated these from city-center coordinates with the standard formula; your own address will shift the figure slightly.

Read in words, the direction from the East Coast is close to northeast, a little toward the east. From the Midwest and Texas it is close to northeast itself, and from the Mountain states and the West Coast it swings toward north-northeast. From Alaska and Hawaii, the shortest route runs over the far north, so the direction is just west of north from Anchorage and north-northwest from Honolulu.

The reason for the swing is geometry. The further west you are in North America, the more of the globe lies between you and Mecca, and the more the shortest route bends toward the north. From Anchorage it passes close to the North Pole; from Honolulu it crosses the Arctic. Moving across a metro area changes the bearing very little, but moving from the East Coast to the West Coast changes it by more than 30 degrees. That is why a prayer direction marked in one city should never simply be copied to another, and why a family that moves should look up, or ask about, the direction again.

The flat-map view

The alternative view holds that the Qibla should be taken as the direction of a line drawn on a map, which from the contiguous US points roughly east, a little south of east, and is often described as southeast. Its supporters argue that "direction" should mean a constant compass heading rather than the starting angle of a curved route. The bearing along a great circle changes as you travel along it, which they see as a reason not to use it.

Both views start from the same wish: to face the Kaaba. They differ in how they translate that wish onto a round Earth.

How the northeast view became common

The question was debated among North American Muslims particularly from the late 1970s, when a detailed case for the great-circle direction was published, into the 1990s, when a book arguing for the east and southeast direction appeared. Published histories of the debate describe how most Muslims in North America eventually adopted the north and northeast direction, while a minority continues to pray toward the east or southeast. The great-circle definition is also the most common technical definition used by Muslim astronomers and by Qibla calculators.

We describe this history so that you can understand the tools you use, not to settle the question for anyone.

What to do in practice

• At a mosque: pray in the direction of the rows. The community has already settled the direction for that building.
• At home: ask your local imam which direction your community uses, then mark it once, for example by aligning a prayer rug with a wall.
• At work or school: use the same direction as your community at home; a phone can help you find it in a new room.
• Traveling: a phone's estimate is a reasonable starting point, and when you find a local mosque, follow its direction.

If you have converted to Islam recently or moved to a new city, it is perfectly normal to ask. Imams and community members are used to the question, and a short conversation saves a lot of uncertainty.

Using a phone in the US

If you use a Qibla app, including AyahFlow, remember that the arrow combines a calculated bearing with your phone's compass reading. The bearing is only as useful as the compass behind it, and the compass is easily disturbed by magnets and metal. Our guide to getting a reliable Qibla reading on iPhone covers calibration and simple cross-checks.

AyahFlow is currently available on the US App Store only; other storefronts are not open yet. Its Qibla direction is an estimate based on your settings and your device's sensors, and the app asks you to verify locally whenever accuracy matters. For everything else about the app, visit the AyahFlow overview.