Gao Prayer Times

Prayer Times in Gao, Mali

Gaoprayer times are calculated based on the city's precise geographic coordinates (16.2717°N, 0.0447°W) using the Muslim World League calculation method — the standard followed by most mosques in Mali. Times shown are for today's date and update automatically at midnight.

The five daily prayers — Fajr, Dhuhr, Asr, Maghrib, and Isha — are calculated from the sun's position relative to Gao's latitude and longitude. As the sun's declination changes throughout the year, prayer times shift by several minutes each day. This is why a Gao prayer time calendar for the full month is shown below — so you can plan ahead without checking daily.

How Gao's prayer times are worked out

Gao sits 4,224 km (2,624 miles) from the Kaaba in Mecca, so the Qibla from here is 76° from true north — you face east to pray. Fajr and Isha depend on how far the sun drops below the horizon, and Mali follows the Muslim World League method set by the Muslim World League: Fajr begins when the sun is 18° below the horizon, and Isha when it reaches 17°. A city that used ISNA's 15° instead would get a noticeably different Fajr — which is why the method, not just the coordinates, decides the answer.

Day length is what really moves the timetable in Gao. Measured with the Muslim World League method, the longest daily fast here — from Fajr to Maghrib — runs about 14h 27m around June, while the shortest is roughly 12h 27m in December: a swing of 2h 00m across the year. That spread is set by Gao's latitude (16.27°N); cities nearer the equator barely vary, while far-northern ones swing by many hours.

One local quirk worth knowing: Dhuhr in Gao does not fall at 12:00. Because the city sits well west within its Africa/Bamako time zone, the sun peaks about 9 minutes after clock noon, and Dhuhr follows the sun rather than the clock — today it is at 12:07 PM. The nearest cities we also publish times for are Djibo, Timbuktu, Kongoussi — close enough that their times differ from Gao's by only a few minutes.