Sun position in Riyadh

Sun times in Riyadh on 12 November 2026

Times are computed for 24.7136°, 46.6753° and refreshed every day. For any other date, an exact azimuth or a shadow drawn on the map, open the interactive sun position map for Riyadh.

The sun’s path over Riyadh

How high the sun stands and where, from sunrise to sunset: today, at both solstices and at the equinox. The higher a curve climbs, the higher the sun; where a curve meets the bottom line, the sun rises or sets at that compass bearing.

The sun through the year in Riyadh

At the June solstice the midday sun reaches 88.7° above the horizon in Riyadh and the day lasts 13 h 40 min. At the December solstice the sun climbs only to 41.8° and the day shrinks to 10 h 36 min. That difference is what decides whether a garden, a window or a solar array sees the sun in winter. The noon shadow column gives the length of the shadow of anything one metre tall.

Riyadh through 2026 at a glance

• At solar noon the sun in Riyadh always stands due south, so the south side of a building, a garden or a roof is the one that gets the sun.
• The sun passes straight overhead at solar noon on 21 June: for a moment upright posts, people and buildings cast no shadow at all.
• The earliest sunset is on 29 November, 22 days before the shortest day (21 December), and the latest sunrise on 14 January, 24 days after it. Solar noon drifts through the year, so the darkest afternoon and the darkest morning do not fall on the shortest day.
• The longest day in Riyadh is 3 h 04 min longer than the shortest, and around the equinoxes the days grow or shrink by up to 1.5 minutes a day.

The winter solstice 2026: the moment, and the shortest and the longest day, city by city →

When the days start getting longer: the earliest sunset, the latest sunrise and lighter evenings, city by city →

Planning around the sun in Riyadh

Solar panels

At 24.7° N a fixed array facing due south collects the most over a year at a tilt of about 22°. Use the solar panel angle calculator with the coordinates 24.7136°, 46.6753° for the exact optimum, the seasonal optima and the loss from an east or west facing roof.

Buying a flat or a plot

At the December solstice the noon sun in Riyadh sits 41.8° above the horizon, so every obstacle casts a shadow 1.1 times its own height at midday. Check what stands to the south before you commit: place the building on the map and read the shaded hours for 21 December.

Photography

Golden hour runs 06:07–06:39 in the morning and 16:35–17:07 in the evening today, and the sun sets toward WSW (251°). The golden hour calculator gives the same windows for any date, and the map’s alignment finder shows the days when the setting sun lines up with a street.

More on planning around the sun: which way a house, garden or balcony should face, how long golden hour lasts and why the earliest sunset comes before the shortest day.

Other cities

Near Riyadh

• Sun position in DohaQatar
• Sun position in Abu DhabiUnited Arab Emirates
• Sun position in JeddahSaudi Arabia
• Sun position in DubaiUnited Arab Emirates

On the same latitude

Riyadh lies at 24.7° N. On the same parallel the longest and the shortest day last just as long and the noon sun climbs just as high, whatever the clocks say there:

• Sun position in KarachiPakistan • 24.9° N
• Sun position in Abu DhabiUnited Arab Emirates • 24.5° N
• Sun position in TaipeiTaiwan • 25.1° N
• Sun position in DohaQatar • 25.3° N

See all cities with sun position data →

helpQuestions

Sun questions about Riyadh