Why this ride
933 km from Al Muharraq to Al Muharraq, about 16 h 57 of riding. It crosses from Bahrain into Qatar - carry ID and check the toll rules. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Al-Alawi House and Al Zubarah Archaeological Site
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 933 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 16 h 57
- 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: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Al-Alawi House
Muharraq's most famous export after pearls is probably football, and the Al-Alawi house stands in a quarter where every wall seems to have a team scarf hanging from it. The Muharraq club is one of the most successful in the country, with a loyal following, and on match days the cafés and lanes of the old town are noisy with argument and song. The people who live in the old merchant houses today are often the grandchildren of men who dived for pearls or traded them, and the town keeps a stubborn local identity separate from Manama, the capital across the water.
Read the complete Al-Alawi House write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Al-Alawi House is where the day begins. Next is Hayr Shtayyah.
2. Al Zubarah Archaeological Site
Out on the north-west coast of Qatar, where the desert slides into a shallow turquoise sea, stand the low ruins of Al Zubarah, once one of the busiest pearling and trading towns in the Gulf. In the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the town thrived on pearls dived from the oyster beds offshore, traded on to India, Persia and beyond. Then it declined, was abandoned in the early twentieth century, and the sand covered it. Archaeologists have since uncovered streets, houses, a souk, mosques and a long town wall running in an arc around the old harbour. UNESCO inscribed the site in 2013.
Read the complete Al Zubarah Archaeological Site write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 470 km into the recorded legs you reach Al Zubarah Archaeological Site. Next is back through Hayr Shtayyah.
3. Al-Alawi House
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Al-Alawi House write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Al-Alawi House. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Al-Alawi House to Al Zubarah Archaeological Site
Al-Alawi House → Al Zubarah Archaeological Site is 470 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Al Zubarah Archaeological Site to Al-Alawi House
Al Zubarah Archaeological Site → Al-Alawi House is 470 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.