Qibla Direction · United Arab Emirates
Qibla from Dubai
The bearing to the Kaaba from Dubai — and why your phone compass alone isn’t enough.
Approximate. The bearing below is a true-north great-circle calculation, rounded for compass use. Your phone compass reads magnetic north, which differs from true north by several degrees depending on where you are. For an exact, live direction, use a GPS-based qibla app.
Qibla from true north · approximate
258°
Roughly west-southwest, from Dubai
Why it can feel like the wrong direction
The shortest path on a sphere is a great circle, not a straight line on a flat map. Depending on where Dubai sits relative to Mecca, that path can curve surprising ways — the qibla from North America points northeast, while from much of Asia it points west. Trust the bearing above over intuition from a flat map.
Using a phone compass
- Calibrate the compass first (figure-8 motion) — an uncalibrated compass can be off by tens of degrees.
- Move away from metal, electronics, and reinforced concrete, all of which distort the reading indoors.
- A GPS-based qibla app is more reliable than a raw compass, because it computes the true direction from your coordinates rather than reading the local magnetic field.
Find the qibla from anywhere
Niyat computes the qibla from your exact GPS location and combines it with your phone's live orientation, so the arrow points correctly even indoors. Free on iPhone and Android.
Download Niyat
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Qibla from other cities
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