CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
396 km from Amman to Amman, about 5 h 11 of riding. It goes by way of Umm Al-Jimāl, Quseir Amra, back through Quseir Amra and back through Umm Al-Jimāl. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,000 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Amman is the starting point of Jordan's King's Highway, the old road that runs south through the country to the Red Sea, and it is also a city worth a day of its own. It is built on a series of hills, once seven, and the oldest part is the Citadel, which holds the pillars of a Roman temple to Hercules, a Byzantine church and an Umayyad palace, all on the same ridge. The ancient name was Philadelphia, after the Ptolemaic king who rebuilt it, and before that Rabbath Ammon, the capital of the Ammonites. Down in the valley below, a large Roman theatre, carved into the hillside and seating around six thousand people, still stages concerts.
Read the complete Amman write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Amman is where the day begins. Next is Umm Al-Jimāl.
Umm al-Jimāl is a black town in a yellow desert. Built almost entirely of dark basalt, it rises from the plain of northern Jordan, near the Syrian border, about fifteen kilometres east of Mafraq. People lived here for centuries, from the Nabataean period through Roman, Byzantine and early Islamic times, and what survives today is an extraordinary rural town of houses, churches, water reservoirs, barracks and streets, many buildings still standing two or three storeys high. Because wood was scarce, the builders used long basalt slabs to make floors and roofs, supported on corbels and arches, and some of the stairways leading to the upper floors still cling to the walls. In 2024 UNESCO listed the site, recognising it as an exceptional example of a farming and trading town on the edge of the desert.
Read the complete Umm Al-Jimāl write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Umm Al-Jimāl comes up 40 km in. Next is Umm Al-Jimāl.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Umm Al-Jimāl write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
81 km in you reach Umm Al-Jimāl. Next is Quseir Amra.
Qusayr Amra stands alone in the stony desert of eastern Jordan, in the Wadi Butm, about twenty-five kilometres from Azraq and some eighty from Amman. It is a small, low building of pale stone with three barrel-vaulted halls and a bathhouse, built in the early eighth century under the Umayyad caliphs, and its plain exterior hides some of the most surprising paintings in the early Islamic world.
Read the complete Quseir Amra write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Quseir Amra, about halfway.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Quseir Amra write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Quseir Amra sits at 161 km, about halfway. Next is back through Quseir Amra.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Quseir Amra write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Quseir Amra comes up 201 km in. Next is back through Umm Al-Jimāl.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Umm Al-Jimāl write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
242 km in you reach back through Umm Al-Jimāl. Next is back through Umm Al-Jimāl.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Umm Al-Jimāl write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Umm Al-Jimāl, late in the day. Next is Amman.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Amman write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 396 km.
Amman → Umm Al-Jimāl is 78 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Umm Al-Jimāl → Quseir Amra is 84 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Quseir Amra → back through Umm Al-Jimāl is 84 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Umm Al-Jimāl → Amman is 78 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.