Prayer Times in Latakia, Syria Today

The latest Maghrib in Syria

Latakia stands at about 35.53 degrees north and 35.79 degrees east, on the Mediterranean. It is the westernmost city on Syria's list, and that makes it the last place in the country the sun sets. Aleppo, at 37.13 east, is 1.34 degrees further along, which at four minutes to the degree puts Latakia a little over five minutes behind it on every prayer.

Five minutes is not dramatic, and it is worth saying so plainly rather than inflating it. Syria is a compact country by prayer-time standards: the entire longitude spread from this coast to the northeast is only about five minutes of solar difference. What genuinely separates Syrian cities is how far north they sit, not how far east.

The clock rule that changed in 2022

Syria used to move its clocks twice a year, running UTC+2 in winter and UTC+3 in summer. In October 2022 it stopped, and the country has stayed on UTC+3 ever since.

For anyone reading a timetable this is a substantial fact. Summer times were untouched by the decision. Winter times moved an hour later on the clock, in one step, and stayed there. Older printed calendars, wall charts kept from previous years, and any app or device that has not taken on the current rule will disagree with this page by precisely one hour through the colder months. If that is the size of the gap you are seeing, the clock is the explanation, not the calculation.

An open western horizon, and what it is worth

Much of Latakia looks straight out over water, which gives the city about as clean a view of the setting sun as Syria has anywhere. Inland cities do not have that: terrain and building raise the effective horizon, so the sun disappears from view slightly before it reaches the true horizon the calculation uses.

Here the assumption and the reality line up closely. The calculated Maghrib and the observed one agree more nearly in Latakia than almost anywhere else in the country. The effect is well under a minute and nobody should be adjusting a timetable for it, but it runs in the opposite direction from what most people expect, and it is the one place in Syria where the model's idealised horizon is close to the real thing.

Angles and school

Fajr is calculated at 19.5 degrees of solar depression and Isha at 17.5, the Egyptian General Authority of Survey convention used across Syria and set out on the Syria prayer times hub.

Asr in this table follows the majority threshold: the window opens when a vertical object's shadow has grown by one further object-height past its midday minimum. Hanafi reckoning requires a second such length and produces an Asr roughly forty to sixty minutes later. Both schools are present in Syria, so a difference of that size between two households is a difference of position, not of accuracy.

What the sunrise line means

Sunrise is published to show where the Fajr window ends. Nothing is due at that moment and it is not a prayer. It is regularly taken for the start of the Ramadan fast, which begins at Fajr instead — a good stretch earlier under the dawn angle in use here.

The seasonal range on this coast

At around thirty-five and a half degrees north, daylight runs from roughly nine and three-quarter hours in midwinter to close to fourteen and three-quarters at midsummer. Fajr and Maghrib each travel well over an hour between their extremes.

Isha follows the sun's depression rather than a fixed number of minutes after sunset, so the evening interval between the two also changes across the year rather than holding a constant shape. With the clock now fixed year round, every bit of that movement in the table is solar.

Ramadan by the sea

The fast runs from Fajr to Maghrib and both boundaries drift steadily over the thirty days, so the monthly view is the practical one to consult at the outset.

Many mosques announce an imsak some minutes before the calculated Fajr as a precaution; this page publishes the astronomical figure and leaves that margin to you. One local note: because Latakia's Maghrib is the latest in Syria, a table shared from Aleppo or from the interior will open the fast five minutes early here.

Friday on the coast

Jumu'ah replaces Dhuhr for those who attend, timed from the Dhuhr entry above. When the khutbah begins after the call is a matter for each mosque. Those praying at home perform Dhuhr at the listed time in the ordinary way.

Working and praying on a port schedule

Latakia is Syria's principal port and work here does not stop for the timetable. It is worth remembering that each prayer window remains open until the next prayer begins, so there is genuine latitude to pray within a window rather than at the instant it opens.

The single exception is Fajr, whose window closes at sunrise rather than continuing into the next prayer. That is the one boundary in the table with no room after it, and the one worth watching on an early shift.

Setting the direction, and further pages

The Qibla direction tool works out the bearing from your own coordinates, which is the right way to settle it rather than carrying one over from another city. For a fixed installation in a building, have it surveyed properly — a phone compass near port steel or reinforced concrete is not dependable enough to set a permanent orientation. Ramadan and Eid dates are on the Hijri calendar, the Arabic version is at Arabic Latakia prayer times, and the nearest comparisons are Tartus prayer times down the coast and Aleppo prayer times inland.