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 390 km round trip from Baalbek - roughly 5 h 18 in the saddle. The stops in between: Byblos, Anjar and back through Byblos. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,750 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
The stones of Baalbek are so big that for centuries people said giants or djinn must have moved them. In the trilithon, part of the foundation of the temple of Jupiter, three limestone blocks each weigh around eight hundred tonnes, and in the quarry nearby lie even larger blocks, including the Stone of the Pregnant Woman, which were cut but never moved. The Romans called the city Heliopolis, the city of the sun, and built here one of the largest temple complexes of their empire over a period of two centuries. Six columns of the temple of Jupiter still stand, about twenty metres tall, and the temple of Bacchus next to it is one of the best-preserved Roman temples anywhere, with richly carved ceilings and doorways.
Read the complete Baalbek write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Baalbek is where the day begins. Next is Byblos.
Byblos, known to the Lebanese as Jbeil, is one of the contenders for the title of oldest continuously inhabited town on the planet. People have lived on this little headland above the Mediterranean for around seven thousand years, and the Phoenician city here was a great trading port, sending cedar wood from the mountains to Egypt and taking papyrus in return. The Greeks named the city after the papyrus, byblos, and from that word comes the word Bible. The alphabet developed by the Phoenicians, ancestor of Greek and Latin letters, is famously inscribed on the sarcophagus of King Ahiram, found here and now in Beirut's national museum.
Read the complete Byblos write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Byblos comes up about 106 km into the recorded legs. Next is Anjar.
In the Bekaa valley of Lebanon, close to the Syrian border, an Umayyad city lies laid out in a perfect grid, as if drawn with a ruler. Anjar was built in the early eighth century, probably under the caliph al-Walid I, as a palace town and commercial centre on the trade routes between Damascus and the coast. Its plan echoes Roman cities, with two main streets crossing at a four-sided monument, the tetrapylon, lined with the bases of hundreds of shops. Arches of the great palace, built of alternating courses of stone and brick, rise against the backdrop of the Anti-Lebanon mountains, and in the late afternoon the stone glows warm gold. The city flourished only briefly before being abandoned, which is why it is so clearly preserved. UNESCO listed it in 1984.
Read the complete Anjar write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 195 km into the recorded legs you reach Anjar. Next is back through Byblos.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Byblos write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Byblos, late in the day. Next is Baalbek.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Baalbek write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Baalbek. That is the ride.
Baalbek → Byblos is 106 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Byblos → Anjar is 89 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Anjar → back through Byblos is 90 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Byblos → Baalbek is 105 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.