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 430 km round trip from Damascus - roughly 6 h 32 in the saddle. The stops in between: Anjar, Baalbek, Forest of the Cedars and Rachid Karami International Fair-Tripoli. 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 Anjar.
In the Bekaa valley of Lebanon, close to the Syrian border, an Umayyad city lies laid out in a perfect grid, as if drawn with a ruler. Anjar was built in the early eighth century, probably under the caliph al-Walid I, as a palace town and commercial centre on the trade routes between Damascus and the coast. Its plan echoes Roman cities, with two main streets crossing at a four-sided monument, the tetrapylon, lined with the bases of hundreds of shops. Arches of the great palace, built of alternating courses of stone and brick, rise against the backdrop of the Anti-Lebanon mountains, and in the late afternoon the stone glows warm gold. The city flourished only briefly before being abandoned, which is why it is so clearly preserved. UNESCO listed it in 1984.
Read the complete Anjar write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Anjar comes up about 59 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 108 km into the recorded legs you reach Baalbek. Next is Forest of the Cedars.
High in the mountains of northern Lebanon, at close to two thousand metres above the Qadisha valley, a small grove of ancient cedars survives as a reminder of the vast forests that once covered these slopes. The Phoenicians built their ships from cedar, the Egyptians used its resin, and the Bible says that Solomon's temple was built with it. Over thousands of years, the forests were cut down almost entirely, and the Cedars of God, as this grove is called, is one of the last remnants, with some trees thought to be many centuries old. It is part of the UNESCO listing of the Ouadi Qadisha, the Holy Valley, and the Forest of the Cedars of God.
Read the complete Forest of the Cedars write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Forest of the Cedars, about halfway. Next is Rachid Karami International Fair-Tripoli.
In the early 1960s, the Lebanese government invited the Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer to design an international fairground for Tripoli, the country's second city. He produced a vast, futuristic complex of sweeping concrete forms: a huge boomerang-shaped exhibition hall, a dome for experimental theatre, an open-air theatre, a helipad, a water tower and more, all set in a park on the edge of the city. Construction was almost finished when the civil war broke out in 1975, and the fair was never completed. Today the site stands as an extraordinary, melancholy monument to modernist ambition and lost hope, and it was listed by UNESCO in 2023, immediately placed on the list of heritage in danger.
Read the complete Rachid Karami International Fair-Tripoli write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Rachid Karami International Fair-Tripoli sits at 192 km, about halfway. Next is back through Forest of the Cedars.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Forest of the Cedars write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Forest of the Cedars comes up about 269 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 321 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Baalbek. Next is back through Anjar.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Anjar write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Anjar, 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.
The route ends here after 430 km.
Ancient City of Damascus → Anjar is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Anjar → Baalbek is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Baalbek → Forest of the Cedars is 53 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Forest of the Cedars → Rachid Karami International Fair-Tripoli is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Rachid Karami International Fair-Tripoli → back through Forest of the Cedars is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Forest of the Cedars → back through Baalbek is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Baalbek → back through Anjar is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Anjar → Ancient City of Damascus is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.