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 334 km round trip from Ḩūsān - roughly 5 h 28 in the saddle. On the way it passes Masada, Tel Beer Sheba and back through Masada. It crosses from Palestinian Territories into Israel - carry ID and check the toll rules. The line favours views over speed.
The hills south of Jerusalem and Bethlehem are older than most of the countries now claiming them, and the terraced slopes around Battir are among the best evidence. For centuries, perhaps for two thousand years, farmers here have built dry-stone terraces down the steep valley sides to grow olives, grapes, figs and vegetables, and the water that feeds them comes from springs and is shared out through channels according to a rota among local families. The system was recognised as a World Heritage landscape in 2014, under the title of the land of olives and vines in southern Jerusalem.
Read the complete Area 1 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Area 1 is where the day begins. Next is Masada.
The Dead Sea lies more than four hundred metres below sea level, the lowest point on land, and Masada rises above its western shore as a vast flat-topped rock with sheer cliffs on every side. King Herod built a palace fortress here in the first century BC, with storerooms, cisterns, bathhouses and a three-tiered palace hanging from the northern cliff. After the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in AD 70, a group of Jewish rebels held out on the rock against the Roman army. The Romans built a siege ramp up the western side, and according to the historian Josephus, when the walls were breached, the defenders chose to die rather than be captured.
Read the complete Masada write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Masada comes up about 101 km into the recorded legs. Next is Tel Beer Sheba.
Tel Beer Sheba is a mound on the edge of the modern city of Beersheba, in the northern Negev desert of southern Israel, and it holds the remains of an Iron Age town that has been excavated and partially reconstructed. With Megiddo and Hazor, it forms the UNESCO site of the Biblical Tels, recognized for their importance in understanding the cities of the biblical era. The name Beersheba appears many times in the Bible, associated with Abraham and the wells he dug in the desert.
Read the complete Tel Beer Sheba write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 166 km into the recorded legs you reach Tel Beer Sheba. Next is back through Masada.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Masada write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Masada, late in the day. Next is Area 1.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Area 1 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Area 1. That is the ride.
Area 1 → Masada is 101 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Masada → Tel Beer Sheba is 65 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Tel Beer Sheba → back through Masada is 66 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Masada → Area 1 is 102 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.