CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
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.
From Göreme it runs 523 km to Göreme; allow about 8 h 08 of riding. On the way it passes Kayali Bogaz, Hattusha: the Hittite Capital, Hattousa and Ibikçam Forest and Yazilikaya. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,400 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Cappadocia is a high plateau in central Turkey where two volcanoes, Erciyes and Hasan, once covered the land in ash, and where the wind and rain have since carved that soft rock into a landscape of cones, towers and ridges. The locals call the pointed pillars fairy chimneys, and some of them stand twenty metres tall, topped with a cap of harder stone. The rock is easy to dig, and for thousands of years people have cut homes, churches, storerooms and pigeon lofts into it, so that whole hillsides are riddled with doorways and windows, and some of the valleys look inhabited by ghosts.
Read the complete Cappadocia write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cappadocia is where the day begins. Next is Kayali Bogaz.
The high plateau of northern central Anatolia is a country of rolling hills and red-brown fields, cut by shallow river valleys and scattered with oak scrub. Kayalı Boğaz lies in the rocky ground near the village of Boğazkale, in the district of Çorum, though the scouting label says Cappadocia, which is a good way to the south. This is the heartland of the Hittites, the Bronze Age people who ruled a large part of Anatolia from their capital Hattusha, a short distance away, and the area is dotted with outcrops, gorges and fortified hilltops where they built shrines, dams and lookouts.
Read the complete Kayali Bogaz write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kayalı Boğaz comes up about 243 km into the recorded legs. Next is Hattusha: the Hittite Capital.
Between about 1600 and 1200 BC, one of the great powers of the ancient world ruled from a town on a rocky slope in the middle of Turkey. Hattusha, the capital of the Hittites, covered a huge area of ridges and ravines, ringed by walls that run for several kilometres over hilltops, with gates guarded by stone lions, a sphinx and a warrior. The Lion Gate and the King's Gate, with its carved figure of a god or king in a short kilt, are the best known, and the Great Temple, a ruined complex of storerooms and shrine rooms, is among the most evocative sites in Anatolia.
Read the complete Hattusha: the Hittite Capital write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
At least about 250 km into the recorded legs you reach Hattusha: the Hittite Capital. Next is Hattousa and Ibikçam Forest.
The same hillside that holds the Hittite capital also holds a surprising amount of woodland, and that is the story of this stop. The spelling Hattousa is the French form of Hattusha, and the Ibikçam forest, a stand of pine on the slopes around the ruins, is part of the protected landscape that surrounds the site. After days of riding across bare steppe, it comes as a relief to find shade, birdsong and the smell of resin. The forest was planted or preserved in the twentieth century, and it makes the long walks between the monuments far more pleasant.
Read the complete Hattousa and Ibikçam Forest write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hattousa and Ibikçam Forest, about halfway. Next is Yazilikaya.
Yazilikaya sits at 211 km, about halfway. Next is back through Hattousa and Ibikçam Forest.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hattousa and Ibikçam Forest write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Hattousa and Ibikçam Forest comes up about 273 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Hattusha: the Hittite Capital.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hattusha: the Hittite Capital write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 274 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Hattusha: the Hittite Capital. Next is back through Kayali Bogaz.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kayali Bogaz write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Kayali Bogaz, late in the day. Next is Cappadocia.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cappadocia write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 523 km.
Cappadocia → Kayali Bogaz is 243 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Kayali Bogaz → Cappadocia is 243 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.