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A pale stone horizontal sundial with north at the top: hour lines in blue, the curves traced by the shadow's tip at the winter and summer solstices and the straight equinox line, the noon line, the asr curve in red and a gold arrow pointing to Mecca. Tall shapes add a compass rose with the qibla needle.
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The Pattern Atlas

Qibla and Sundial

No. 100 of 100 · free · 300 dpi

What you seeA pale stone horizontal sundial with north at the top: hour lines in blue, the curves traced by the shadow's tip at the winter and summer solstices and the straight equinox line, the noon line, the asr curve in red and a gold arrow pointing to Mecca. Tall shapes add a compass rose with the qibla needle.

What it meansMosques often kept sundials to find the prayer times. The asr prayer begins when a shadow equals its object's length plus its noon shadow, which the red curve marks. This dial is laid out for the latitude of Damascus, where the qibla lies about 164 degrees east of north.

Where it worksA precise, thoughtful plate for a study, a hallway or a prayer space.

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2:3 · 7200 × 10800 px4×6 · 8×12 · 12×18 · 16×24 · 20×30 · 24×36 in
3:4 · 5400 × 7200 px6×8 · 9×12 · 12×16 · 18×24 in
4:5 · 7200 × 9000 px4×5 · 8×10 · 16×20 · 24×30 in
11:14 · 3300 × 4200 px11×14 in
A-series · 7023 × 9933 pxA5 · A4 · A3 · A2 · A1

Everything is one ZIP: every shape and size, the phone wallpaper, the SVGs and a printing guide.

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All 100 prints
A full field of ten-fold girih pattern: cream strapwork weaving over and under through lapis ten-pointed stars, turquoise pentagons and terracotta and gold pieces, with the faint tile edges beneath. Below or beside it the five girih tiles are laid out as a key: decagon, pentagon, rhombus, elongated hexagon and bowtie.GirihNo. 1
A panel of zellige mosaic on the octagon-and-square grid: cream and lapis eight-pointed stars, turquoise kites, small terracotta and gold four-pointed stars and black corner pieces, every piece separated by an even line of pale grout, inside a black frame.ZelligeNo. 2
A panel of gold strapwork that weaves over and under itself through a twelve-fold pattern on a deep ink ground: terracotta twelve-pointed stars, lapis six-pointed stars and small turquoise pieces, the panel edges falling on the pattern's own lines of symmetry.TashbikNo. 3
The compass-and-straightedge construction of an eight-pointed star in fine gold on ink: a circle, its axes and diagonals, the arcs that find them, and two squares set at forty-five degrees, with the star filled in lapis.KhatamNo. 4
A chart of four circular details, each centred on a star rosette with six, eight, ten and twelve points, drawn in lapis line with the central stars in terracotta.Star FamiliesNo. 5
A six-fold pattern of hexagrams and hexagons, with one region marked to show its symmetry: dashed mirror lines, centres of six-, three- and two-fold rotation, and a gold triangle that is the smallest repeating unit, with a small legend below.SymmetryNo. 6
A turned-wood mashrabiya screen in warm brown: beaded lathe-turned spindles meeting at round turned knobs, held in a stepped moulded frame, with a solid inset panel at its centre pierced by an eight-pointed star filled with small turned spokes, all against soft light.MashrabiyaNo. 7
A pointed-arch window of pale sandstone pierced with a lattice of six-pointed stars and hexagons, the openings shown dark, with incised borders and carved rosettes in the spandrels.JaliNo. 8

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