🇻🇪 Caracas

Caracas uses the Muslim World League method (method 3 in our calculator), an 18-degree Fajr and 17-degree Isha convention adopted by the Mezquita Sheikh Ibrahim al-Ibrahim and the Centro Islámico de Venezuela. Venezuela has no national Islamic authority that prescribes a fixed convention, and MWL is the working default applied by the city's main mosques for their published timetables. The 18-degree solar depression resolves cleanly at Caracas' 10.5°N latitude — the city sits well within the northern tropics and seasonal twilight swing is modest, so method choice has only a marginal practical effect compared with high-latitude cities. Apps set to the ISNA 15-degree default common in North American contexts will produce slightly later Fajr and earlier Isha values, with differences on the order of ten minutes at the twilight prayers. Dhuhr, Asr and Maghrib are unaffected by method choice.

Caracas' prayer times shift only modestly across the year because the city sits at just 10.5° north, well within the tropical band where day length stays relatively stable. In late June, Fajr is calculated for around 04:35, sunrise comes near 05:55, Maghrib falls around 18:55 and Isha sits near 20:10. In late December, sunrise slips toward 06:50, Maghrib arrives around 18:00 and Isha follows around 19:15, with the full annual swing of either Fajr or Maghrib held to under an hour and a half — much smaller than at high-latitude European or North American capitals. The equinoxes in March and September are the calmest periods. Venezuelan civil time has shifted twice in recent decades (most notably the 2007 half-hour move and 2016 reversal), and visitors should ensure their apps are using the correct current offset for the America/Caracas zone.

Venezuela hosts an established Muslim community with deep roots in late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century Levantine migration — particularly Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian arrivals to Caracas, Maracaibo, Valencia and the Margarita island free-trade zone. National estimates range from roughly 100,000 to 150,000, making it one of the larger Latin American Muslim communities relative to its population. The Caracas community is concentrated in the El Recreo and central districts, with the Mezquita Sheikh Ibrahim al-Ibrahim — opened in 1993 with Saudi funding and a 113-metre minaret that was for two decades the largest in Latin America by certain metrics — serving as the community's flagship institution. The community is overwhelmingly Sunni with a smaller Shia presence, and family life is shaped by a layered Spanish-Arab cultural identity. Recent emigration pressures have reduced Caracas' Muslim population, with notable diaspora movements to Florida, Madrid and Latin American cities.

The Mezquita Sheikh Ibrahim al-Ibrahim in the El Recreo parish of Caracas, opened in 1993 with Saudi funding and a 113-metre minaret, is the principal Friday gathering point in the Venezuelan capital and was for two decades the largest mosque in Latin America by certain metrics. The mosque draws a Friday congregation that combines Caracas' established Lebanese and Syrian-Venezuelan families, more recent migrants and a smaller convert cohort. The Centro Islámico de Venezuela and the smaller Mezquita As-Salam serve secondary gatherings, with khutbas typically delivered in Arabic and Spanish reflecting the bilingual character of the community. Friday prayer at the El Recreo mosque usually begins between 12:30 and 13:30. The mosque's prominent presence on the Caracas skyline makes it a recognised landmark, and visitors are generally welcome to attend Friday prayer subject to standard mosque etiquette and security considerations.

Prayer times differ between cities because they are calculated from the apparent position of the sun, which depends on a city's latitude, longitude and the date. Caracas sits at 10.5°N, 66.9°W in the America/Caracas time zone, well within the northern tropics where twilight resolves quickly and daylight stays relatively stable across the year. Two cities at very different latitudes — say Caracas at 10.5°N and Buenos Aires at 34.6°S — see twilight unfold over very different durations, so Fajr, Maghrib and Isha can sit substantially apart between them, particularly around the June and December solstices. Even cities at similar latitudes diverge if they fall in different time zones or follow different calculation conventions for the Fajr and Isha twilight angles, such as MWL's 18-degree depression versus ISNA's 15-degree convention common across North America. Time-zone offset changes in Venezuelan history have added an extra source of clock-time confusion.