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.
446 km from Spárti to Spárti, about 9 h 31 of riding. On the way it passes Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae, Archaeological Site of Olympia, back through Archaeological Site of Olympia and back through Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Mystras is a whole Byzantine city draped down a steep hillside, a few kilometres west of modern Sparta, at the foot of the Taygetos mountains. It began in 1249, when William II of Villehardouin, a Frankish prince ruling the Peloponnese after the Fourth Crusade, built a castle on the summit. Within a few years the Byzantines had taken it back, and Mystras grew into the capital of the Despotate of the Morea, a centre of learning and art in the last centuries of the empire. The philosopher Gemistos Plethon taught here, and in 1449 Constantine XI Palaiologos, the last Byzantine emperor, was crowned here before leaving for Constantinople, where he died when the city fell in 1453.
Read the complete Archaeological Site of Mystras write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Archaeological Site of Mystras is where the day begins. Next is Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae.
At over a thousand metres in the mountains of Arcadia, on a rocky shoulder above the gorges of the Neda, stands one of the best preserved temples of ancient Greece, and since the 1980s it has stood under a vast white tent. The Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae was built in the fifth century BC by the people of nearby Phigalia, who dedicated it to Apollo the helper, it is said, for saving them from plague. Ancient writers attributed its design to Iktinos, one of the architects of the Parthenon. It was the first Greek monument in Greece to be listed as a World Heritage Site, in 1986.
Read the complete Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae comes up about 98 km into the recorded legs. Next is Archaeological Site of Olympia.
Every four years, for more than a thousand years, a truce was declared across the Greek world so that athletes could travel to Olympia. The sanctuary lies in a green valley in the western Peloponnese, where the Alfeios river meets a smaller stream, below the pine-covered Hill of Kronos. The traditional date of the first Games is 776 BC, and they carried on until the Roman emperor Theodosius put an end to pagan festivals at the end of the fourth century AD. The statue of Zeus made by Phidias for the temple here, a giant seated figure of gold and ivory, was one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world, though it has long since vanished.
Read the complete Archaeological Site of Olympia write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 161 km into the recorded legs you reach Archaeological Site of Olympia.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae, about halfway. Next is back through Archaeological Site of Olympia.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Archaeological Site of Olympia write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Archaeological Site of Olympia sits at 220 km, about halfway. Next is back through Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae comes up about 348 km into the recorded legs. Next is Archaeological Site of Mystras.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Archaeological Site of Mystras write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Archaeological Site of Mystras closes the day.
Archaeological Site of Mystras → Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae is 98 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae → Archaeological Site of Olympia is 63 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Archaeological Site of Olympia → Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae → back through Archaeological Site of Olympia is 63 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Archaeological Site of Olympia → back through Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae → Archaeological Site of Mystras is 98 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.