Why this ride
From Al Muharraq it runs 933 km to Al Muharraq; allow about 16 h 57 of riding. It crosses from Bahrain into Qatar - carry ID and check the toll rules. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Al-Jalahma 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-Jalahma House
Muharraq is the old island city of Bahrain, joined to Manama by causeways, and for most of the last few thousand years it was the place where the country's real wealth came from. That wealth was pearls. The natural oyster beds of the Gulf were among the richest in the world, and in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the merchants of Muharraq exported pearls to Bombay, Paris and beyond. The money built houses, and a handful of those houses are now part of a UNESCO-listed trail that follows the pearling economy from boat to dealer to home.
Read the complete Al-Jalahma House write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Al-Jalahma 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-Jalahma House
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Al-Jalahma 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-Jalahma House. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Al-Jalahma House to Al Zubarah Archaeological Site
Al-Jalahma 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-Jalahma House
Al Zubarah Archaeological Site → Al-Jalahma House is 470 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.