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 385 km round trip from Umm ar Raşāş - roughly 6 h 56 in the saddle. The stops in between: Baptism Site “Bethany Beyond the Jordan”, As-Salt - The Place of Tolerance and Urban, Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls and back through As-Salt - The Place of Tolerance and Urban. It crosses from Jordan into Palestinian Territories - carry ID and check the toll rules. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
For about 76 km this is Jordan Kings Highway, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it — expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast.
This part of the ride is 41 km of Baptism Site “Bethany Beyond the Jordan” → As-Salt - The Place of Tole.
Out on the plateau of central Jordan, east of the Dead Sea and south of Madaba, the land opens into a wide, treeless plain of wheat and barley, with low stone walls and the odd shepherd's tent. On that plain stand the ruins of Umm ar-Rasas, and the castrum is its oldest part, a rectangle of massive walls that began as a Roman military camp. It is probably of the late third or the fourth century, one of many forts that guarded the empire's edge against the desert tribes, and a garrison of auxiliary soldiers lived here. Its Roman name has been forgotten, and in the Byzantine age the town was called Kastron Mefaa. The walls still stand to a fair height, and inside is a jumble of collapsed houses, cisterns and arches, with a few churches among them.
Read the complete Castrum write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Castrum is where the day begins. Next is 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.
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” comes up about 76 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 117 km into the recorded legs you reach As-Salt - The Place of Tolerance and Urban. Next is 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.
Read the complete Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls, about halfway. 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 sits at 245 km, about halfway. Next is back through 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.
back through Baptism Site “Bethany Beyond the Jordan” comes up about 310 km into the recorded legs. Next is Castrum.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Castrum write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Castrum closes the day.
Castrum → Baptism Site “Bethany Beyond the Jordan” is 76 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
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 → Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls is 77 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls → back through As-Salt - The Place of Tolerance and Urban is 75 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 → back through Baptism Site “Bethany Beyond the Jordan” is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Baptism Site “Bethany Beyond the Jordan” → Castrum is 75 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.