As-Salt - The Place of Tolerance and Urban and Hebron/Al-Khalil Old Town
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
275 km
Riding-time estimate
5 h 05
Journey
Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From As Salţ it runs 275 km to As Salţ; allow about 5 h 05 of riding. It goes by way of Baptism Site “Bethany Beyond the Jordan”, Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls, Hebron/Al-Khalil Old Town and back through Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls. It crosses from Jordan into Palestinian Territories - carry ID and check the toll rules. The line favours views over speed.
Scenic road chapters
As-Salt - The Place of Tolerance and Urban → Baptism Site “Bethany Bey
The ride follows As-Salt - The Place of Tolerance and Urban → Baptism Site “Bethany Bey for 41 km.
Chapter facts
Length
41 km
Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls → Hebron/Al-Khalil Old Town
41 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it. Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through.
Chapter facts
Length
39 km
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. As-Salt - The Place of Tolerance and Urban
As-Salt climbs three steep hills in the Balqa highlands north-west of Amman, a town of honey-coloured limestone houses with arched windows, terraced streets and long staircases. In the late Ottoman period, from the 1860s to the 1920s, it was the most important town in the region east of the Jordan, a trading hub where merchants from Nablus, Damascus and Beirut settled and built grand houses in a mix of local and European styles. Muslims and Christians lived side by side, sharing guesthouses and charitable traditions, and the town was inscribed on the UNESCO list in 2021 as As-Salt, the Place of Tolerance and Urban Hospitality.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
As-Salt - The Place of Tolerance and Urban is where the day begins. Next is Baptism Site “Bethany Beyond the Jordan”.
2. Baptism Site “Bethany Beyond the Jordan”
Down here you are well below sea level, close to four hundred metres under it, and the air shows it: thick, warm and heavy, with a mineral haze rising off the Dead Sea a few kilometres to the south. The baptism site known as Bethany Beyond the Jordan, Al-Maghtas in Arabic, lies on the east bank of the river Jordan, the place many Christians identify with the baptism of Jesus by John. Across a narrow, muddy channel of water stands Qasr al-Yahud on the western side, close to Jericho, and the two banks look at each other across one of the world's most heavily watched borders.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Baptism Site “Bethany Beyond the Jordan” comes up about 41 km into the recorded legs. Next is Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls.
3. Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls
Few square kilometres on earth carry as much weight as these. The Old City of Jerusalem holds sites sacred to Judaism, Christianity and Islam, packed into a maze of stone lanes inside walls built by the Ottoman sultan Suleiman the Magnificent in the 1530s. The Western Wall, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Dome of the Rock and the al-Aqsa Mosque lie within a few minutes' walk of each other, and the city's four traditional quarters, Jewish, Christian, Muslim and Armenian, each have their own character, markets and rhythms. The Old City and its walls were added to the UNESCO list in 1981.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 99 km into the recorded legs you reach Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls. Next is Hebron/Al-Khalil Old Town.
4. Hebron/Al-Khalil Old Town
Hebron, al-Khalil in Arabic, is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the Middle East, set in the hills of the southern West Bank. Its heart is the old town, a warren of stone alleys, covered souqs and Mamluk-era houses, grouped around the great mosque built over the Cave of the Patriarchs, where tradition places the tombs of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their wives. The site is holy to Muslims, Jews and Christians, and its name in Arabic, al-Khalil, means the friend, a reference to Abraham as the friend of God.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Baptism Site “Bethany Beyond the Jordan” comes up about 233 km into the recorded legs. Next is As-Salt - The Place of Tolerance and Urban.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
As-Salt - The Place of Tolerance and Urban closes the day.
Leg by leg
As-Salt - The Place of Tolerance and Urban to Baptism Site “Bethany Beyond the Jordan”
As-Salt - The Place of Tolerance and Urban → Baptism Site “Bethany Beyond the Jordan” is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Baptism Site “Bethany Beyond the Jordan” to Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls
Baptism Site “Bethany Beyond the Jordan” → Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls to Hebron/Al-Khalil Old Town
Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls → Hebron/Al-Khalil Old Town is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hebron/Al-Khalil Old Town to back through Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls
Hebron/Al-Khalil Old Town → back through Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls to back through Baptism Site “Bethany Beyond the Jordan”
back through Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls → back through Baptism Site “Bethany Beyond the Jordan” is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Baptism Site “Bethany Beyond the Jordan” to As-Salt - The Place of Tolerance and Urban
back through Baptism Site “Bethany Beyond the Jordan” → As-Salt - The Place of Tolerance and Urban is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.