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.
A 423 km round trip from Damascus - roughly 6 h 04 in the saddle. On the way it passes Baalbek, Byblos and back through Baalbek. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,750 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Syria into Lebanon - carry ID and check the toll rules. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Damascus claims, with plenty of justification, to be among the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. Its old city, enclosed by Roman and medieval walls, holds the Umayyad Mosque, built in the early eighth century on the site of a Roman temple and a Christian church, with golden mosaics showing an idealised landscape of rivers and palaces, and a shrine said to hold the head of John the Baptist. The Street Called Straight, mentioned in the story of Saint Paul's conversion, still runs east to west through the old city, and the covered Souk al-Hamidiyya, with its iron roof pierced by bullet holes from the 1920s, leads to the mosque.
Read the complete Ancient City of Damascus write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ancient City of Damascus is where the day begins. Next is Baalbek.
The stones of Baalbek are so big that for centuries people said giants or djinn must have moved them. In the trilithon, part of the foundation of the temple of Jupiter, three limestone blocks each weigh around eight hundred tonnes, and in the quarry nearby lie even larger blocks, including the Stone of the Pregnant Woman, which were cut but never moved. The Romans called the city Heliopolis, the city of the sun, and built here one of the largest temple complexes of their empire over a period of two centuries. Six columns of the temple of Jupiter still stand, about twenty metres tall, and the temple of Bacchus next to it is one of the best-preserved Roman temples anywhere, with richly carved ceilings and doorways.
Read the complete Baalbek write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Baalbek comes up about 105 km into the recorded legs. Next is Byblos.
Byblos, known to the Lebanese as Jbeil, is one of the contenders for the title of oldest continuously inhabited town on the planet. People have lived on this little headland above the Mediterranean for around seven thousand years, and the Phoenician city here was a great trading port, sending cedar wood from the mountains to Egypt and taking papyrus in return. The Greeks named the city after the papyrus, byblos, and from that word comes the word Bible. The alphabet developed by the Phoenicians, ancestor of Greek and Latin letters, is famously inscribed on the sarcophagus of King Ahiram, found here and now in Beirut's national museum.
Read the complete Byblos write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 211 km into the recorded legs you reach Byblos. Next is back through Baalbek.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Baalbek write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Baalbek, late in the day. Next is Ancient City of Damascus.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ancient City of Damascus write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Ancient City of Damascus. That is the ride.
Ancient City of Damascus → Baalbek is 105 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Baalbek → Byblos is 106 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Byblos → back through Baalbek is 105 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Baalbek → Ancient City of Damascus is 107 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.