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.
On the way it passes Bahla Fort, Falaj Al-Malki and back through Bahla Fort. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,050 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 76 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-Malki.
The Falaj Al-Malki is one of the irrigation channels that UNESCO listed in 2006 as part of the aflaj of Oman, and it lies near Izki, in the valley below the great wall of Jebel Akhdar. Izki is an old oasis town with palm groves and a ruined mud-brick quarter, strategically placed at the Sumail Gap, the natural pass that has linked the coast and the interior for thousands of years. Caravans, armies and traders all passed here, and the town has always had its share of tribal rivalries and politics.
Read the complete Falaj Al-Malki write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 196 km into the recorded legs you reach Falaj Al-Malki. 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-Malki is 76 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Falaj Al-Malki → back through Bahla Fort is 91 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
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.