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 401 km round trip from Buşrá ash Shām - roughly 5 h 26 in the saddle. On the way it passes Umm Al-Jimāl, Quseir Amra and back through Umm Al-Jimāl. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,150 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.
This is the Hauran, the volcanic plateau of southern Syria, where black basalt lies across the land like spilled coal and the villages are built of the same stone, so that houses seem to grow from the fields. Bosra, the famous Roman city, lies less than a kilometre from the spot, and everything around it follows the same dark theme.
Read the complete Area 2 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Area 2 is where the day begins. Next is Umm Al-Jimāl.
Umm al-Jimāl is a black town in a yellow desert. Built almost entirely of dark basalt, it rises from the plain of northern Jordan, near the Syrian border, about fifteen kilometres east of Mafraq. People lived here for centuries, from the Nabataean period through Roman, Byzantine and early Islamic times, and what survives today is an extraordinary rural town of houses, churches, water reservoirs, barracks and streets, many buildings still standing two or three storeys high. Because wood was scarce, the builders used long basalt slabs to make floors and roofs, supported on corbels and arches, and some of the stairways leading to the upper floors still cling to the walls. In 2024 UNESCO listed the site, recognising it as an exceptional example of a farming and trading town on the edge of the desert.
Read the complete Umm Al-Jimāl write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Umm Al-Jimāl comes up about 81 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 196 km into the recorded legs you reach Quseir Amra. Next is back through Umm Al-Jimāl.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Umm Al-Jimāl write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Umm Al-Jimāl, late in the day. Next is Area 2.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Area 2 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Area 2. That is the ride.
Area 2 → Umm Al-Jimāl is 81 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Umm Al-Jimāl → Quseir Amra is 115 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Quseir Amra → back through Umm Al-Jimāl is 127 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Umm Al-Jimāl → Area 2 is 79 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.