CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Ziyodin Shaharchasi it runs 232 km to Ziyodin Shaharchasi; allow about 4 h 05 of riding. It goes by way of Kasim Sheikh Architectural Complex, Rabati Malik Caravanserai, Chasma-i Ayub Khazira and back through Rabati Malik Caravanserai. The line favours views over speed.
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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Dabusiya Settlement is where the day begins. Next is Kasim Sheikh Architectural Complex.
Dabusiya is an ancient settlement on the Zeravshan, the river that rises in the Tajik glaciers, flows past Samarkand and Bukhara, and then dwindles into the sands before reaching the sea. Of the old fortified town, there are now mounds, a few ruined walls and a clear sense of where the river used to run. In its prime, around the sixth century, it lay on the route between the two great oases, and it was famous in the early Islamic period; the geographers write of its markets and of a decisive battle that was fought in the area in the eighth century. The Kasim Sheikh complex in the label belongs to the same shrine tradition as many sites near Navoi: a saint's tomb, a mosque and a small cluster of domes and arches that turned a hill into a pilgrimage place.
Read the complete Kasim Sheikh Architectural Complex write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kasim Sheikh Architectural Complex comes up 46 km in. Next is Rabati Malik Caravanserai.
Only the portal of Rabati Malik is left standing, but what a portal it is: a tall brick façade with a great arch, framed by fluted columns and decorated with intricate brick patterns, rising beside the road between Bukhara and Samarkand in the steppe of central Uzbekistan. It was built in the eleventh century by the Karakhanid rulers as a royal caravanserai, a fortified palace and rest stop on the Silk Road, and travellers once found shelter, water and protection here behind its massive walls. The rest of the building was destroyed over the centuries, but archaeologists have traced its plan, and the portal itself has been restored. Across the road, a sardoba, a domed brick reservoir, collected water for the caravans and is still in good condition.
Read the complete Rabati Malik Caravanserai write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
91 km in you reach Rabati Malik Caravanserai. Next is 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Chasma-i Ayub Khazira, about halfway. Next is back through Rabati Malik Caravanserai.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Rabati Malik Caravanserai write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Rabati Malik Caravanserai sits at 183 km, about halfway. Next is back through Kasim Sheikh Architectural Complex.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kasim Sheikh Architectural Complex write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Kasim Sheikh Architectural Complex comes up 228 km in. Next is Dabusiya Settlement.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Dabusiya Settlement write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Dabusiya Settlement closes the day.
Dabusiya Settlement → Kasim Sheikh Architectural Complex is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kasim Sheikh Architectural Complex → Rabati Malik Caravanserai is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Rabati Malik Caravanserai → Chasma-i Ayub Khazira is 63 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Chasma-i Ayub Khazira → back through Rabati Malik Caravanserai is 63 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Rabati Malik Caravanserai → back through Kasim Sheikh Architectural Complex is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Kasim Sheikh Architectural Complex → Dabusiya Settlement is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.