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.
508 km from Culfa to Culfa, about 12 h 32 of riding. The stops in between: The Monastery of Saint Thaddeus, The main chapel, The village and The Baran village. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,150 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
The chapel of Dzordzor sits in a narrow valley of north-western Iran, a small Armenian church in country where the hills fold into one another and the villages are few. The name in Persian is Darresham, and the site belongs to the same UNESCO group as the great monasteries of Saint Thaddeus and Saint Stepanos. It is the smallest of the three, but it carries the same quality of stubborn survival: a stone building, rebuilt and repaired by the community that depended on it, still standing in a landscape where most of the evidence of earlier lives has been scraped away.
Read the complete Darresham Chapel write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Darresham Chapel is where the day begins. Next is The Monastery of Saint Thaddeus.
On a bare hillside near the border between Iran and Turkey, close to the foot of Mount Ararat, stands a black-and-white church that has survived earthquakes, wars and neglect for most of a thousand years. The Monastery of Saint Thaddeus, known in Iran as Qara Kelisa, the Black Church, is one of the oldest and most revered Armenian churches in the world. It is built of alternating bands of black and white stone, in a way that gives it a striking, almost chequered appearance, and it stands in a high, windy valley of the north-west.
Read the complete The Monastery of Saint Thaddeus write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Monastery of Saint Thaddeus comes up about 108 km into the recorded legs. Next is The main chapel.
Black and white stone, in alternating courses, climbs the walls of a church that stands alone on a hillside in the far north-west of Iran. The Armenians call it the monastery of Saint Thaddeus, and the Persians know it as Qara Kelisa, the black church, a name that comes from the dark stone of its lower walls. Tradition says that a chapel was founded here in the first century by the apostle Thaddeus, who was martyred nearby, and that this makes it one of the oldest places of Christian worship in the world. The buildings that stand today are mostly of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, rebuilt after an earthquake, and they are among the finest examples of Armenian architecture outside Armenia.
Read the complete The main chapel write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
At least about 157 km into the recorded legs you reach The main chapel. Next is The village.
The village near the black church is a world of mud, stone and apricot trees. Low houses with flat roofs are built into the slope, with piles of fuel cakes drying against the walls, smoke curling from chimneys in the evening, and the sound of sheep and dogs echoing in the valley. People here live much as they have for generations, growing grain and fruit, herding animals and trading with the markets in the towns below. This corner of West Azerbaijan is a mix of Azeri and Kurdish villages, with Armenian history layered underneath.
Read the complete The village write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The village, about halfway. Next is The Baran village.
The Baran village sits at 156 km, about halfway. Next is back through The village.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The village write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through The village comes up about 304 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through The main chapel.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The main chapel write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 353 km into the recorded legs you reach back through The main chapel. Next is back through The Monastery of Saint Thaddeus.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Monastery of Saint Thaddeus write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through The Monastery of Saint Thaddeus, late in the day. Next is Darresham Chapel.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Darresham Chapel write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 508 km.
Darresham Chapel → The Monastery of Saint Thaddeus is 108 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
The Monastery of Saint Thaddeus → The main chapel is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The main chapel → The village is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The village → The Baran village is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Baran village → back through The village is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through The village → back through The main chapel is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through The main chapel → back through The Monastery of Saint Thaddeus is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through The Monastery of Saint Thaddeus → Darresham Chapel is 108 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.