From the Houston, Texas reference point at 29.7604, -95.3698, the Qibla is 45.5° clockwise from true north: northeast, just past the 45° diagonal. This approximate city reference is not your address; set your own place in the finder on this page.
Read Houston's near-northeast bearing
At 45.5°, the Houston result sits about half a degree clockwise from the exact 45° diagonal. It falls within the northeast compass sector, but the calculated figure is 45.5°, not exactly 45°. Other places in and around Houston have their own figures.
For a fixed starting point, the bearing does not change during the day. It depends only on the starting point and the Kaaba reference point, so the Houston result is the same in the morning as at night. A phone's heading moves as you turn the phone, and a magnetic correction depends on place and date. Both are separate from the calculated bearing.
The 12,574 km figure is measured over the surface of a sphere, not as a flight or driving distance. The methodology explains how both numbers are calculated.
Choose the Houston place you mean
The Houston result belongs to one approximate point. It is not your address, and it does not stand for all of Greater Houston. To set a specific place without using the map:
- Use my location makes one position request. Your browser may ask for permission, or it may already have it.
- Open Enter coordinates instead, type Latitude and Longitude in decimal degrees, and press Find my Qibla. This method does not request your device location.
A more specific point is only as good as the coordinates behind it. A device position can be off, and typed values can contain mistakes. For help choosing a starting point, see city preset or current location. For what position error means for the result, see what location accuracy means for Qibla.
Use the local map or a supported compass
The map works without any phone sensor:
- Press Open map and stay on Nearby, which is north-up.
- Pan until your place is in the centre, then press Use map centre. Panning on its own does not change the result.
- Match the short line, which extends up to 3 km, with roads or buildings you recognize, or with a reliable true-north reference. The line shows a direction. It does not measure the walls of your room.
Full route shows the whole path. Makkah lies farther south than Houston, so on a common north-up Mercator-style world map a straight line between them points slightly south of east. Latitude alone does not set the starting direction, though. The shortest path over the globe leaves Houston heading northeast, and that kind of map draws it as a curve. Use the starting bearing at your point. For more detail, see why Qibla routes curve on maps.
With a separate compass, remember that 45.5° is a true-north figure. An unadjusted magnetic compass needs one correction for the current local declination, and the steps are in using a separate compass. If you choose Enable live compass on a supported phone, the finder already applies that correction, so leave the number as it is. Hold the phone flat or nearly level in portrait. If the arrow is unsteady, see help when the compass is not working.
A shared northeast label, different city bearings
Chicago's reference point at 41.8781, -87.6298 gives 48.7° from true north, and Houston's gives 45.5°. Both are northeast, but Chicago's bearing is about 3.2° further clockwise. Houston is also about 1,429 km farther from the Kaaba reference point on this sphere: 12,574 km, compared with 11,146 km from Chicago.
Northeast names a range of directions rather than one number, so do not copy a figure from one US city to another. The paired diagram on this page draws each bearing from its own point. The Chicago result has its own page.
Keep the Houston card or your selected point
The Houston panel and the image from Download reference card always show the Houston reference point and its 45.5° bearing. They do not follow changes you make in the finder. Printable reference is for the point you have selected. It prints that point's coordinates even with the optional QR code turned off.
A link you copied earlier keeps the city it was made for. A new Share city link contains only the preset selected when you press it. Points from your device, typed coordinates or the map are shared another way. Share location shows a preview before Create coordinate link, and a coordinate QR code on the printable reference also needs your confirmation. Both contain the coordinates. Before you send one, read about sharing a location.