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.
It goes by way of Bahla Fort, Falaj Al-Katmeen and back through Bahla Fort. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,100 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 59 km this is Oman Jebel Akhdar Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
There is a ridge in the Omani interior where stone beehive towers still stand in a line against the sky, and they are about five thousand years old. The Bat area, near the oasis town of Ibri on the edge of the Hajar mountains, holds some of the best preserved remains of the Bronze Age in the Arabian peninsula, along with the nearby sites of Al-Khutm and Al-Ayn. The beehive tombs were built in the third millennium BC, in the so-called Umm an-Nar period, from stacked, dressed stones, and the settlement towers beside them watched over a landscape of wadis and date palms.
Read the complete Archaeological Sites of Bat write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Archaeological Sites of Bat is where the day begins. Next is Bahla Fort.
Bahla Fort rises above the oasis like a mountain made of mud. Its massive walls and towers of adobe and stone, built on a rocky outcrop in the plain below the Hajar mountains, were the stronghold of the Banu Nebhan, a tribe that dominated the region from roughly the twelfth to the fifteenth century. Around the fort, the old town of Bahla is enclosed by a wall that runs for kilometres across the oasis, and the date palms and fields inside are watered by aflaj, ancient irrigation channels that carry water from underground sources and springs. UNESCO listed the fort in 1987, and after years of restoration, it is open to visitors.
Read the complete Bahla Fort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bahla Fort comes up about 120 km into the recorded legs. Next is Falaj Al-Katmeen.
At the foot of the Hajar mountains, near the old town of Birkat al Mouz between Izki and Nizwa, the Falaj al Khatmeen is one of five Omani irrigation systems listed by UNESCO as the Aflaj Irrigation Systems of Oman. A falaj is a channel that brings water from a spring or an underground source, sometimes kilometres away, to villages and date gardens, and this one has been running for centuries. What makes the aflaj remarkable is the system of sharing: the water is divided among the owners of shares by time, traditionally measured by the shadow of a sundial by day and the movement of the stars by night, and the rules are managed by the community with great precision. Walking along the narrow stone channel, with fish darting in the clear water and the shade of the palms overhead, you feel the coolness that comes from water in the desert.
Read the complete Falaj Al-Katmeen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 179 km into the recorded legs you reach Falaj Al-Katmeen. Next is back through Bahla Fort.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Bahla Fort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Bahla Fort, late in the day. Next is Archaeological Sites of Bat.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Archaeological Sites of Bat write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Archaeological Sites of Bat. That is the ride.
Archaeological Sites of Bat → Bahla Fort is 120 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Bahla Fort → Falaj Al-Katmeen is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Falaj Al-Katmeen → back through Bahla Fort is 74 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Bahla Fort → Archaeological Sites of Bat is 119 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.