Why this ride
A 191 km round trip from Baku - roughly 3 h in the saddle. It goes by way of Jinghindagh mountain -Yazylytepe hill, Gobustan Rock Art Cultural Landscape, Boyukdash mountain and Kichikdash mountain.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Baku day out · Kichikdash mountain
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 191 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 3 h 18
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Baku
Baku is a city of wind. The name is often said to come from a Persian phrase meaning a place battered by winds, and anybody who has stood on the Caspian boulevard on a bad day will believe it. The city curves around a bay on the western shore of the sea, with a medieval walled core, Icherisheher, rising behind the seafront, and the modern glass of the Flame Towers high above, lit by moving flames in the evening that can be seen from far across the water.
Read the complete Baku write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Baku is where the day begins. Next is Jinghindagh mountain -Yazylytepe hill.
2. Jinghindagh mountain -Yazylytepe hill
Gobustan is a stony, wind-scoured landscape of low hills and mesas south of Baku, near the shores of the Caspian Sea, and on its rocks, people carved images over thousands of years: hunters with bows, boats with rowers, dancers, wild cattle, deer and goats. More than six thousand petroglyphs have been recorded here, dating back as far as the end of the last ice age, and the Gobustan Rock Art Cultural Landscape was listed by UNESCO in 2007.
Read the complete Jinghindagh mountain -Yazylytepe hill write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Jinghindagh mountain -Yazylytepe hill comes up about 57 km into the recorded legs. Next is Gobustan Rock Art Cultural Landscape.
3. Gobustan Rock Art Cultural Landscape
Some places keep their secrets in plain view. Gobustan Rock Art Cultural Landscape is a low plateau of boulders and caves southwest of Baku, where over six thousand petroglyphs have been recorded, some perhaps forty thousand years old if you accept the broadest estimates, and others dating from the Middle Ages. The earliest pictures show hunters and large animals, and the later ones include boats with rows of oars, dancing figures and carts. Archaeologists believe the sea was close to the rocks in prehistoric times, and the boats fit that picture.
Read the complete Gobustan Rock Art Cultural Landscape write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
At least about 85 km into the recorded legs you reach Gobustan Rock Art Cultural Landscape. Next is Boyukdash mountain.
4. Boyukdash mountain
Gobustan is a rocky, windswept plateau about sixty kilometres south of Baku, where outcrops of limestone and sandstone rise out of a plain of dry grass, and the Caspian Sea glints on the horizon. Boyukdash, the Big Rock, is one of the boulders that make up this open-air gallery, and its sides are covered with carvings called petroglyphs made by people who lived and hunted here over thousands of years, some of them tens of thousands. UNESCO listed the area in 2007.
Read the complete Boyukdash mountain write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Boyukdash mountain, about halfway. Next is Kichikdash mountain.
5. Kichikdash mountain
The plateau of Gobustan is a dry, stony place, grey and ochre, with boulders scattered across low hills as if a giant had emptied a bag of rubble and left. Kichikdash, whose name means Little Stone, is one of those hills, a rocky outcrop in the reserve a few kilometres from the town of Qobustan, with the Caspian Sea visible in the distance on a clear day. Its bigger neighbour is Boyukdash, Big Stone, and together they hold some of the oldest pictures in the Caucasus.
Read the complete Kichikdash mountain write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Kichikdash mountain sits at 87 km, about halfway. Next is back through Boyukdash mountain.
6. back through Boyukdash mountain
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Boyukdash mountain write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Boyukdash mountain comes up about 100 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Gobustan Rock Art Cultural Landscape.
7. back through Gobustan Rock Art Cultural Landscape
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Gobustan Rock Art Cultural Landscape write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 101 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Gobustan Rock Art Cultural Landscape. Next is back through Jinghindagh mountain -Yazylytepe hill.
8. back through Jinghindagh mountain -Yazylytepe hill
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Jinghindagh mountain -Yazylytepe hill write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Jinghindagh mountain -Yazylytepe hill, late in the day. Next is Baku.
9. Baku
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Baku write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 191 km.
Leg by leg
Baku to Jinghindagh mountain -Yazylytepe hill
Baku → Jinghindagh mountain -Yazylytepe hill is 57 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Jinghindagh mountain -Yazylytepe hill to Gobustan Rock Art Cultural Landscape
Jinghindagh mountain -Yazylytepe hill → Gobustan Rock Art Cultural Landscape is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Boyukdash mountain to Kichikdash mountain
Boyukdash mountain → Kichikdash mountain is 7 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kichikdash mountain to back through Boyukdash mountain
Kichikdash mountain → back through Boyukdash mountain is 7 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Gobustan Rock Art Cultural Landscape to back through Jinghindagh mountain -Yazylytepe hill
back through Gobustan Rock Art Cultural Landscape → back through Jinghindagh mountain -Yazylytepe hill is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Jinghindagh mountain -Yazylytepe hill to Baku
back through Jinghindagh mountain -Yazylytepe hill → Baku is 62 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.