Why this ride
A 109 km round trip from Bayramaly - roughly 2 h 31 in the saddle. On the way it passes Kelte Minara koshk, Yaz and Gobekli Tepes and back through Kelte Minara koshk. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Abdullah Khan Kala and Yaz and Gobekli Tepes
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 109 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 2 h 31
- 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. Abdullah Khan Kala
Abdullah Khan Kala is a mud-brick fortress on the edge of the Merv oasis, about five kilometres from the town of Bayramaly, and it makes a surprising amount of noise for something so silent. Its walls are enormous, rising out of the flat desert plain, and from the top you can see the pale shapes of other Merv monuments far away, all of them made from the same earth.
Read the complete Abdullah Khan Kala write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Abdullah Khan Kala is where the day begins. Next is Kelte Minara koshk.
2. Kelte Minara koshk
Once there were few cities in the world as big as Merv. At its height, in the twelfth century, under the Seljuk sultans, the oasis city on the Murghab river, in the sands of what is now Turkmenistan, may have been the largest on the planet, with a population counted in the hundreds of thousands, libraries that Arab geographers praised and a position on the Silk Road between Persia and Central Asia. In 1221, the Mongols arrived, and the chroniclers say that the slaughter was beyond counting. The city never recovered its size, but the ruins, which cover a vast area of low walls, mounds and shattered brick, were listed as a World Heritage site in 1999.
Read the complete Kelte Minara koshk write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Kelte Minara koshk comes up about 17 km into the recorded legs. Next is Yaz and Gobekli Tepes.
3. Yaz and Gobekli Tepes
Out on the edge of the Murghab oasis in south-eastern Turkmenistan, where irrigated cotton fields meet the sand of the Karakum, low mounds rise from the flat land. Tepe means hill, and these hills are the eroded remains of ancient settlements: Yaz Depe, which gave its name to an Iron Age culture of the early first millennium BC, and Gobekli Depe nearby. To an untrained eye they are just humps of clay, but they belong to one of the longest continuous stories of settlement in Central Asia.
Read the complete Yaz and Gobekli Tepes write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 50 km into the recorded legs you reach Yaz and Gobekli Tepes. Next is back through Kelte Minara koshk.
4. back through Kelte Minara koshk
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kelte Minara koshk write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Kelte Minara koshk, late in the day. Next is Abdullah Khan Kala.
5. Abdullah Khan Kala
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Abdullah Khan Kala write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Abdullah Khan Kala. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Abdullah Khan Kala to Kelte Minara koshk
Abdullah Khan Kala → Kelte Minara koshk is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kelte Minara koshk to Yaz and Gobekli Tepes
Kelte Minara koshk → Yaz and Gobekli Tepes is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Yaz and Gobekli Tepes to back through Kelte Minara koshk
Yaz and Gobekli Tepes → back through Kelte Minara koshk is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Kelte Minara koshk to Abdullah Khan Kala
back through Kelte Minara koshk → Abdullah Khan Kala is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.