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 Bethlehem it runs 333 km to Bethlehem; allow about 5 h 27 of riding. The stops in between: Masada, Tel Beer Sheba and back through Masada. It crosses from Palestinian Territories into Israel - carry ID and check the toll rules. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
This part of the ride is 101 km of Birthplace of Jesus: Church of the Nativit → Masada.
To enter the Church of the Nativity, you have to bow. The main door into the basilica was made smaller over the centuries, probably to stop people riding in on horseback, and the low opening is known as the Door of Humility. Inside, the church built by Justinian in the sixth century over an earlier fourth century basilica of Constantine is one of the oldest functioning churches in the world, and beneath its altar a stair leads down to the Grotto of the Nativity, where a silver star marks the place where tradition says Jesus was born. The church and the pilgrimage route through Bethlehem became a World Heritage Site in 2012.
Read the complete Birthplace of Jesus: Church of the Nativit write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Birthplace of Jesus: Church of the Nativit is where the day begins. Next is Masada.
The Dead Sea lies more than four hundred metres below sea level, the lowest point on land, and Masada rises above its western shore as a vast flat-topped rock with sheer cliffs on every side. King Herod built a palace fortress here in the first century BC, with storerooms, cisterns, bathhouses and a three-tiered palace hanging from the northern cliff. After the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in AD 70, a group of Jewish rebels held out on the rock against the Roman army. The Romans built a siege ramp up the western side, and according to the historian Josephus, when the walls were breached, the defenders chose to die rather than be captured.
Read the complete Masada write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Masada comes up about 101 km into the recorded legs. Next is Tel Beer Sheba.
Tel Beer Sheba is a mound on the edge of the modern city of Beersheba, in the northern Negev desert of southern Israel, and it holds the remains of an Iron Age town that has been excavated and partially reconstructed. With Megiddo and Hazor, it forms the UNESCO site of the Biblical Tels, recognized for their importance in understanding the cities of the biblical era. The name Beersheba appears many times in the Bible, associated with Abraham and the wells he dug in the desert.
Read the complete Tel Beer Sheba write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 166 km into the recorded legs you reach Tel Beer Sheba. Next is back through Masada.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Masada write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Masada, late in the day. Next is Birthplace of Jesus: Church of the Nativit.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Birthplace of Jesus: Church of the Nativit write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Birthplace of Jesus: Church of the Nativit. That is the ride.
Birthplace of Jesus: Church of the Nativit → Masada is 101 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Masada → Tel Beer Sheba is 65 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Tel Beer Sheba → back through Masada is 66 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Masada → Birthplace of Jesus: Church of the Nativit is 101 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.