Chasma-i Ayub Khazira and Dabusiya Settlement

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Chasma-i Ayub Khazira

   North of Bukhara, the green irrigated oasis of the Zarafshan river spreads out in a patchwork of cotton fields, orchards, mulberry trees and villages, and the point named Chasma-i Ayub Khazira lies in this landscape, near the village of Khazara, between Vobkent and Gijduvon. Chashma-i Ayub, the spring of Job, is a name given to several holy springs in Central Asia, linked to the legend that the prophet Job struck the ground with his staff and water gushed forth in a time of drought. The most famous is in Bukhara itself, a mausoleum over a spring, and this site near Khazara may be another shrine of the same tradition, listed as part of the Silk Roads corridor of the Zarafshan valley.

   Read the complete Chasma-i Ayub Khazira write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Chasma-i Ayub Khazira is where the day begins. Next is Rabati Malik Sardoba.

2. 2. Rabati Malik Sardoba

   Halfway between Samarkand and Bukhara, the old caravan road crosses a stretch of steppe that is flat, dry and almost empty, and in the eleventh century someone decided that a traveller crossing it deserved a proper stopping place. Rabati Malik, the Rabat of the King, was built in the 1070s by a Karakhanid ruler named Shams al-Mulk Nasr, on one of the main branches of the Silk Road. The caravanserai itself is now mostly collapsed, and what remains is a tall brick entrance portal, ornamented with carved terracotta, standing alone in the plain like the front of a theatre set.

   Read the complete Rabati Malik Sardoba write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Rabati Malik Sardoba comes up 68 km in. Next is Dabusiya Settlement.

3. 3. Dabusiya Settlement

   Halfway along the old road from Samarkand to Bukhara, where the Zeravshan valley widens into irrigated plain, there is a ruined town called Dabusiya. The Sogdians founded it, and it grew into a staging post on the Silk Road, where caravans paused for water, fodder and trade. The Arabs reached it in the early eighth century and the town held out and changed hands as the region went through conquest and conversion. By the Middle Ages it was a modest brick town with a citadel, a mosque and workshops. The Mongols and later shifts in the river sealed its decline.

   Read the complete Dabusiya Settlement write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   136 km in you reach Dabusiya Settlement. Next is back through Rabati Malik Sardoba.

4. 4. back through Rabati Malik Sardoba

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Rabati Malik Sardoba write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Rabati Malik Sardoba, late in the day. Next is Chasma-i Ayub Khazira.

5. 5. Chasma-i Ayub Khazira

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Chasma-i Ayub Khazira write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at Chasma-i Ayub Khazira. That is the ride.