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 Athens it runs 504 km to Athens; allow about 10 h 53 of riding. On the way it passes Sanctuary of Asklepios at Epidaurus, Archaeological Site of Tiryns, Archaeological Sites of Mycenae and Tiryns and back through Archaeological Sites of Mycenae and Tiryns. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
The rock itself is a surprise. The Acropolis rises about a hundred and fifty metres above Athens, a limestone outcrop with steep sides and a flat top, and for most of ancient history it was the city's fortress and shrine. The buildings you see today, the Parthenon, the Propylaia gateway, the little temple of Athena Nike and the Erechtheion with its stone maidens, were mostly built in the second half of the fifth century BC under Pericles, with the sculptor Phidias overseeing the work. The Parthenon was finished in 432 BC.
Read the complete Acropolis write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Acropolis is where the day begins. Next is Sanctuary of Asklepios at Epidaurus.
Drop a coin in the centre of the orchestra at Epidaurus and people sitting in the top row, fifty-odd rows above, will hear it. The theatre of the sanctuary of Asklepios, built in the fourth century BC, is famous for its acoustics and its almost perfect state of preservation, and it still hosts performances of ancient drama during the summer festival. But the theatre was only part of the sanctuary. Epidaurus was the most famous healing centre of the ancient Greek world, where the sick came to sleep in the sacred buildings and hope that the god Asklepios would visit them in a dream with a cure.
Read the complete Sanctuary of Asklepios at Epidaurus write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sanctuary of Asklepios at Epidaurus comes up about 139 km into the recorded legs. Next is Archaeological Site of Tiryns.
Homer called it Tiryns of the great walls, and when you stand next to them you see that he was not exaggerating. The citadel rises from a low limestone ridge in the Argolid plain, and its walls are built of blocks so enormous that later Greeks decided only the Cyclopes, one-eyed giants, could have lifted them. The name stuck: Cyclopean masonry. Tiryns was one of the great centres of the Mycenaean world in the late Bronze Age, linked in legend to Heracles, who was said to have served its king, and its galleries are the best part. These long corridors are roofed with corbelled stone vaults, their walls polished smooth over the centuries by sheep sheltering from the weather.
Read the complete Archaeological Site of Tiryns write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 170 km into the recorded legs you reach Archaeological Site of Tiryns. Next is Archaeological Sites of Mycenae and Tiryns.
The plain of Argos is a wide, flat basin of orange groves and olive trees tucked into the Peloponnese, and on its edge, a few kilometres apart, stand the two strongholds that gave the Greek Bronze Age its name. Mycenae sits on a rocky spur between two ravines, with Argos eleven kilometres to the south-west and the sea beyond, and Tiryns lies lower down near the shore, on a low rocky mound that once stood by the water.
Read the complete Archaeological Sites of Mycenae and Tiryns write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Archaeological Sites of Mycenae and Tiryns, about halfway.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sanctuary of Asklepios at Epidaurus write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sanctuary of Asklepios at Epidaurus sits at 193 km, about halfway. Next is back through Archaeological Sites of Mycenae and Tiryns.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Archaeological Sites of Mycenae and Tiryns write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Archaeological Sites of Mycenae and Tiryns comes up about 299 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Archaeological Site of Tiryns.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Archaeological Site of Tiryns write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 337 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Archaeological Site of Tiryns. Next is back through Sanctuary of Asklepios at Epidaurus.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sanctuary of Asklepios at Epidaurus write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Sanctuary of Asklepios at Epidaurus, late in the day. Next is Acropolis.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Acropolis write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 504 km.
Acropolis → Sanctuary of Asklepios at Epidaurus is 139 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Sanctuary of Asklepios at Epidaurus → Archaeological Site of Tiryns is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Archaeological Site of Tiryns → Archaeological Sites of Mycenae and Tiryns is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Archaeological Sites of Mycenae and Tiryns → Sanctuary of Asklepios at Epidaurus is 64 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sanctuary of Asklepios at Epidaurus → back through Archaeological Sites of Mycenae and Tiryns is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Archaeological Sites of Mycenae and Tiryns → back through Archaeological Site of Tiryns is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Archaeological Site of Tiryns → back through Sanctuary of Asklepios at Epidaurus is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Sanctuary of Asklepios at Epidaurus → Acropolis is 138 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.