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 Jericho it runs 534 km to Jericho; allow about 8 h 55 of riding. On the way it passes As-Salt - The Place of Tolerance and Urban, Sebastia, Tel Megiddo and North Slope of Mount Carmel. It crosses Jordan, Palestinian Territories and Israel - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. The line favours views over speed.
The ride follows Baptism Site “Bethany Beyond the Jordan” → As-Salt - The Place of Tole for 41 km.
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.
Read the complete Baptism Site “Bethany Beyond the Jordan” write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Baptism Site “Bethany Beyond the Jordan” is where the day begins. Next is 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.
Read the complete As-Salt - The Place of Tolerance and Urban write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
As-Salt - The Place of Tolerance and Urban comes up about 41 km into the recorded legs. Next is Sebastia.
Sebastia, Sabastiya in Arabic, is a Palestinian village on a hill north-west of Nablus, in the northern West Bank, surrounded by olive groves and terraced hillsides. It stands on the site of Samaria, the capital of the northern Kingdom of Israel in the ninth and eighth centuries BC, later rebuilt by Herod the Great, who named it Sebaste in honour of the Emperor Augustus. The ruins on the hilltop above the village span a thousand years of history.
Read the complete Sebastia write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 178 km into the recorded legs you reach Sebastia. Next is Tel Megiddo.
From the top of Tel Megiddo, the whole of the Jezreel Valley spreads out below you, a green and gold checkerboard of fields stretching towards Mount Tabor and the hills of Galilee. You can see at once why so many armies fought here. The mound guarded the narrow pass where the ancient coastal road, the Via Maris, crossed from the Mediterranean plain into the valley, and anyone who held it controlled one of the great trade and military routes of the ancient world.
Read the complete Tel Megiddo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Tel Megiddo, about halfway. Next is North Slope of Mount Carmel.
Haifa is the one big Israeli city where you really do ride up a mountain to get home. The north slope of Mount Carmel drops almost straight into the Mediterranean, and the city is stacked on it in layers: port and railway at the bottom, then the German Colony with its tidy Templer houses, then the long terraces of the Bahá'í Gardens, and finally the ridge, where the road along the top gives you the whole bay as far as Acre on a clear afternoon.
Read the complete North Slope of Mount Carmel write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
North Slope of Mount Carmel sits at 204 km, about halfway. Next is back through Tel Megiddo.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Tel Megiddo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Tel Megiddo comes up about 301 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Sebastia.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sebastia write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 352 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Sebastia. Next is back through As-Salt - The Place of Tolerance and Urban.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete As-Salt - The Place of Tolerance and Urban write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through As-Salt - The Place of Tolerance and Urban, late in the day. Next is Baptism Site “Bethany Beyond the Jordan”.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Baptism Site “Bethany Beyond the Jordan” write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 534 km.
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.
As-Salt - The Place of Tolerance and Urban → Sebastia is 137 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Sebastia → Tel Megiddo is 53 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Tel Megiddo → North Slope of Mount Carmel is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
North Slope of Mount Carmel → back through Tel Megiddo is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Tel Megiddo → back through Sebastia is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Sebastia → back through As-Salt - The Place of Tolerance and Urban is 140 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through 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.