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 Samarkand it runs 147 km to Samarkand; allow about 2 h 19 of riding. On the way it passes Jartepa II Temple, Sanjarshakh Settlement and back through Jartepa II Temple. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,300 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Uzbekistan into Tajikistan - carry ID and check the toll rules. The line favours views over speed.
Samarkand as the Mongols found it lay not where the tourists now go but on a high, dusty plateau north of the modern town. That plateau is Afrosiab, the old city, and it was already ancient when Alexander the Great took it in 329 BC under the name Marakanda. It flourished as a Sogdian capital, saw Arab armies arrive in the eighth century, and kept growing until 1220, when Genghis Khan swept in and destroyed it so thoroughly that it was never rebuilt. The survivors drifted south, and Timur later raised his capital on the new ground.
Read the complete Afrosiab Archaeological Area write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Afrosiab Archaeological Area is where the day begins. Next is Jartepa II Temple.
The Zarafshan valley is the green artery of central Uzbekistan, carrying meltwater from the mountains of Tajikistan west past Samarkand and Bukhara into the desert. South of Samarkand, the land rises into the foothills of the Zarafshan range, and it is here, near Urgut and close to the Tajik border, that the Jartepa site lies, with remains of a temple from the Sogdian era.
Read the complete Jartepa II Temple write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Jartepa II Temple comes up about 38 km into the recorded legs. Next is Sanjarshakh Settlement.
Sanjarshakh lies in the Zarafshan valley of Tajikistan, a short ride from the town of Panjakent, and its low mounds and walls are the remains of a Sogdian settlement. The Sogdians were the great merchants of Central Asia, who spoke an Iranian language and carried silk, spices, paper and ideas along the Silk Road from China to Persia and beyond, and their language was the common tongue of the trade routes for several centuries. Their towns lay in the valleys of the Zarafshan and the Kashkadarya, and Panjakent, a few kilometres from here, is the best known, with houses decorated with wall paintings of epic stories, banquets and gods, that are now in the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg.
Read the complete Sanjarshakh Settlement write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 74 km into the recorded legs you reach Sanjarshakh Settlement. Next is back through Jartepa II Temple.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Jartepa II Temple write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Jartepa II Temple, late in the day. Next is Afrosiab Archaeological Area.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Afrosiab Archaeological Area write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Afrosiab Archaeological Area. That is the ride.
Afrosiab Archaeological Area → Jartepa II Temple is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Jartepa II Temple → Sanjarshakh Settlement is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sanjarshakh Settlement → back through Jartepa II Temple is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Jartepa II Temple → Afrosiab Archaeological Area is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.