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.
From Buşrá ash Shām it runs 598 km to Buşrá ash Shām; allow about 7 h 36 of riding. The stops in between: Quseir Amra, Um er-Rasas and back through Quseir Amra. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,100 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Syria into Jordan - carry ID and check the toll rules. The line favours views over speed.
Bosra stands on the black basalt plain of the Hauran, in the south of Syria, close to the Jordanian frontier, and the whole town seems to be made of the dark volcanic stone that is found in the fields. It was a Nabataean town, and then the Romans made it the capital of the province of Arabia in the early second century, building a grid of streets, baths, a triumphal arch and one of the best-preserved theatres in the Roman world. The theatre could seat some fifteen thousand people. In the Middle Ages it was wrapped in a fortress by the Ayyubids, whose walls and towers rise around the stage, so that you can walk through the vaults beneath the seats and the old defences at the same time.
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 Quseir Amra.
Qusayr Amra stands alone in the stony desert of eastern Jordan, in the Wadi Butm, about twenty-five kilometres from Azraq and some eighty from Amman. It is a small, low building of pale stone with three barrel-vaulted halls and a bathhouse, built in the early eighth century under the Umayyad caliphs, and its plain exterior hides some of the most surprising paintings in the early Islamic world.
Read the complete Quseir Amra write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Quseir Amra comes up about 173 km into the recorded legs. Next is Um er-Rasas.
The most surprising thing at Umm ar-Rasas is a tower. It stands alone in the fields about a kilometre north of the old town, a tall square column of stone, about fifteen metres high, with no door and a small chamber at the top, and it was built for a stylite, one of those early Christian ascetics who lived on top of pillars to be closer to heaven and further from the world. Stylites became famous in Syria in the fifth century, and this tower, which dates from the Byzantine period, is one of very few that survive in the region, and it may have been used as late as the ninth century. A monk lived in that little room, and pilgrims came to see him.
Read the complete Um er-Rasas write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 298 km into the recorded legs you reach Um er-Rasas. Next is back through Quseir Amra.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Quseir Amra write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Quseir Amra, 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 → Quseir Amra is 173 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Quseir Amra → Um er-Rasas is 125 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Um er-Rasas → back through Quseir Amra is 127 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Quseir Amra → Area 1 is 173 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.