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.
A 141 km round trip from Thessaloníki - roughly 2 h 07 in the saddle. On the way it passes Bronze Age settlement and Cemetery of Tumu, Archaeological Site of Aigai, Ancient City and Necropolis of Aegae and back through Archaeological Site of Aigai.
Thessaloniki wears its layers openly. Founded in 315 BC by Cassander, a general of Alexander the Great, who named it after his wife, a half-sister of Alexander, it became a major Roman city and then, for over a thousand years, the second city of the Byzantine Empire. Its seafront is dominated by the White Tower, a sixteenth-century fortification that is the symbol of the city, and the Arch of Galerius and the Rotunda, a Roman building that has been a temple, a church and a mosque, stand in the centre. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was born here in 1881.
Read the complete Thessaloniki write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Thessaloniki is where the day begins. Next is Bronze Age settlement and Cemetery of Tumu.
Vergina is a small village at the foot of the Pierian mountains in northern Greece, and for most of history nobody outside the region knew its name. That changed in 1977, when the archaeologist Manolis Andronikos opened a great burial mound here and found royal tombs with astonishing grave goods. The site is ancient Aigai, the first capital of the Macedonian kingdom, and one of the tombs is widely attributed to Philip II, father of Alexander the Great. The prehistoric settlement and the large cemetery of burial mounds nearby show that people had been living and burying their dead here for a very long time before the Macedonian kings.
Read the complete Bronze Age settlement and Cemetery of Tumu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bronze Age settlement and Cemetery of Tumu comes up about 66 km into the recorded legs. Next is Archaeological Site of Aigai.
In 1977 the Greek archaeologist Manolis Andronikos lifted the stone slab of a vaulted tomb under a huge mound near the village of Vergina and found a gold casket holding the cremated bones of a man in his forties, with a golden wreath beside them. Most scholars now accept that it was Philip II of Macedon, the father of Alexander the Great, murdered in the theatre of the old capital in 336 BC. The mound, the Great Tumulus, is the centrepiece of Aigai, the first capital of Macedon, and today the royal tombs are displayed underground in a museum built inside the tumulus itself, in a half-light that makes the gold glow.
Read the complete Archaeological Site of Aigai write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
At least about 70 km into the recorded legs you reach Archaeological Site of Aigai. Next is Ancient City and Necropolis of Aegae.
Vergina is a quiet farming village on the lower slopes of the Pieria mountains, in the plain of Imathia, and for most of its history nobody thought much about it. Then in 1977 the archaeologist Manolis Andronikos opened a tumulus and found an untouched royal tomb, with a gold chest, a gold wreath of oak leaves and the cremated bones of a middle-aged man, and the question was whose. The widely accepted answer is Philip II of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great, who was murdered in the theatre of Aegae in 336 BC, and the find confirmed that Vergina is the old Macedonian capital Aegae, where kings were crowned and buried.
Read the complete Ancient City and Necropolis of Aegae write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ancient City and Necropolis of Aegae, about halfway. Next is back through Archaeological Site of Aigai.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Archaeological Site of Aigai write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Archaeological Site of Aigai sits at 106 km, about halfway. Next is back through Bronze Age settlement and Cemetery of Tumu.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Bronze Age settlement and Cemetery of Tumu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Bronze Age settlement and Cemetery of Tumu comes up about 76 km into the recorded legs. Next is Thessaloniki.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Thessaloniki write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Thessaloniki closes the day.
Thessaloniki → Bronze Age settlement and Cemetery of Tumu is 66 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Bronze Age settlement and Cemetery of Tumu → Archaeological Site of Aigai is 4 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Archaeological Site of Aigai → back through Bronze Age settlement and Cemetery of Tumu is 4 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Bronze Age settlement and Cemetery of Tumu → Thessaloniki is 67 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.