Can you name the compass directions one would face when determining the shortest distance to Mecca from the following? by yearbookjohn

Can you name the compass directions one would face when determining the shortest distance to Mecca from the following?

created by yearbookjohn

Enter a compass direction in the box below
Correctly named compass directions will show up below
Click any empty City or Direction Faced to answer for that location
Enter the abbreviated direction one would face to find the shortest distance to Mecca in the following world cities. Cardinal Directions used for this quiz: N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W, and NW.
Source: http://www.elahmad.com/maps/qibla-english.htm
This quiz has not been verified by Sporcle

Popular trivia games today

Geography Bunker IV

48476

Inverse Sporcle

12967

Figure Out the Lyrics (One-Hit Wonder)

6932

US Cities: West to East

6574

State Abbr. Blitz with Booby Traps

5925

Pokémon Weaknesses with Booby Traps

5525

Word Ladder: Chekhov's Gun

5138

'Q', 'X', 'Y', and 'Z' Movies by Picture

4480

And more...

PLAY GAME

03:00

Show Missed Answers

City	Direction Faced
New York City
Cairo
Paris
Mexico City
Tehran
Sydney
San Francisco
Buenos Aires
Shanghai
London
Anchorage, AK
Moscow

City	Direction Faced
Lagos
Sao Paulo
Riyadh
Delhi
Honolulu, HI
Tokyo
Kinshasa
Johannesburg
Los Angeles
Istanbul
Jakarta
Baghdad

Javascript is not currently enabled on your browser.
If you do have Javascript enabled:
This site uses javascript to make the magic happen.
Please turn on javascript and reload this page, or use a more current browser (like Firefox)

You might also like these games:
US States	Countries of Europe	Countries of Asia

There are 11 comments for this game.
(Warning: comments may contain spoilers)

Towards Mecca Quiz

by yearbookjohn

Created Aug 11, 2010 in Geography
Game Plays 75

Friend Scores and Standings

Loading friend results....

Top Games Today in Geography

Top Games with Similar Tags

Top User Games in Geography

	yearbookjohn:	Aug 11th, 2010 at 20:36 GMT		1 point
	This is my first game. Please let me know how I did, if I need to change anything, or add additional information.

	coulraphobic123:	Aug 11th, 2010 at 21:15 GMT		1 point
	Some of these seem very off...also when I tried to type west for Sydney it didn't accept it. Either accept the full word or you have to go and edit it to accept single character answers.

	mattbufford:	Aug 11th, 2010 at 21:28 GMT		0 points
	Are you sure you'd face Northeast from NYC? That just doesn't seem right at all...

	1447:	Aug 11th, 2010 at 21:35 GMT		1 point
	From New York, you'd face east-southeast, not northeast. The only thing northeast from NY is Greenland and Iceland.

	yearbookjohn:	Aug 11th, 2010 at 21:42 GMT		2 points
	As odd as it may look, the direction from NYC is Northeast using a great circle. I had to use my globe and a piece of string just to make sure.

	LinuxLinus:	Aug 11th, 2010 at 21:53 GMT		1 point
	Sydney is far, far south of Mecca. Going west from Sydney, you never even hit the CONTINENT of Asia, let alone Mecca.

	yearbookjohn:	Aug 11th, 2010 at 21:59 GMT		1 point
	Here is another site for comparision: http://www.al-habib.info/qibla-pointer/

	dancastro:	Aug 12th, 2010 at 00:16 GMT		3 points
	I've just verified the answers with a geodesic calculator available online (you enter the latitude and longitude of both points and it gives the distance and direction). The quiz is flawless. All directions are correct if we consider that they are "rounded" to 45º; e.g. from Buenos Aires a more accurate answer would be east-northeast, but as these intermediate points are not allowed, the best approximation is east (the exact direction is closer to east than to northeast). Unfortunately, the usual maps of the world (Mercator projection) are deceiving. The answer is correct: from Alaska the shortest way to reach Mecca is going north. Someone may think that north from Alaska there is only the North Pole. But if you go beyond the North Pole (something that can't be seen in a Mercator map but is feasible with an airplane) you'll be approaching Mecca.

	deadperson21:	Aug 12th, 2010 at 03:41 GMT		1 point
	Before you complain about the directions, try researching it yourself. You can use Google Earth, click on the ruler on the top and drag a line from New York to Mecca. Go back to New York, and you'll see the line goes off in a northeast direction

	confused:	Aug 12th, 2010 at 10:19 GMT		2 points
	I love the idea, and some of these were real eye-openers. I'm still playing with the globe and computer, a sure sign of a good geography quiz.

	jonesjeffum:	Sep 28th, 2010 at 04:19 GMT		1 point
	good idea, but way too easy to get 100 from just guessing