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 387 km round trip from Fès al Bali - roughly 7 h 11 in the saddle. On the way it passes Archaeological Site of Volubilis, Historic City of Meknes, back through Archaeological Site of Volubilis and back through Historic City of Meknes. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Fès El Bali is the old walled city of Fez, founded at the end of the eighth century by Idris I and made a capital by his son Idris II, and it is often described as the largest car-free urban area in the world. Nine thousand lanes is the figure people quote for its maze, and anyone who has lost an hour there believes it. The medina fills a bowl in the hills, with roofs stepping down toward the Fez river, and from the heights above it the whole place looks like a pile of sand-coloured dice.
Read the complete Fès El Bali write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fès El Bali is where the day begins. Next is Archaeological Site of Volubilis.
Olive trees have surrounded Volubilis for two thousand years, and they still do. The Roman city, on a gentle slope below the Zerhoun massif north of Meknes, was the westernmost major town of the empire's province of Mauretania Tingitana, and it grew rich on olive oil, grain and the trade in wild animals for the arenas of Rome. Its ruins include a triumphal arch dedicated to the emperor Caracalla, a basilica, a forum, temples, and above all a series of houses with superb mosaics in their floors, showing Orpheus with his lyre, the labours of Hercules, Bacchus and Diana bathing. Volubilis became a World Heritage Site in 1997.
Read the complete Archaeological Site of Volubilis write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Archaeological Site of Volubilis comes up about 103 km into the recorded legs. Next is Historic City of Meknes.
Meknes is the city of Moulay Ismail, a sultan who ruled Morocco for fifty-five years from 1672 and decided that the capital needed to be as big as his ambitions. He built an imperial city of ramparts, gates, palaces, granaries and stables, using thousands of workers and captives, and the scale of it still startles. Bab Mansour, the great ceremonial gate, is covered in green and white tilework and marble columns taken from Roman Volubilis, and it stands over a large square called El Hedim, where storytellers and food stalls gather in the evening. The granaries, the Heri es-Souani, are a series of immense vaulted halls with walls several metres thick, where grain and animals were once stored, and the quiet inside is cool and heavy.
Read the complete Historic City of Meknes write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 132 km into the recorded legs you reach Historic City of Meknes.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Archaeological Site of Volubilis write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Archaeological Site of Volubilis, about halfway. Next is Historic City of Meknes.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Historic City of Meknes write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Historic City of Meknes sits at 159 km, about halfway. Next is back through Archaeological Site of Volubilis.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Archaeological Site of Volubilis write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Archaeological Site of Volubilis comes up about 225 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Historic City of Meknes.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Historic City of Meknes write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 254 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Historic City of Meknes.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Archaeological Site of Volubilis write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Archaeological Site of Volubilis, late in the day. Next is Fès El Bali.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fès El Bali write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 387 km.
Fès El Bali → Archaeological Site of Volubilis is 103 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Archaeological Site of Volubilis → Historic City of Meknes is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Historic City of Meknes → Archaeological Site of Volubilis is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Historic City of Meknes → back through Archaeological Site of Volubilis is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Archaeological Site of Volubilis → back through Historic City of Meknes is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Historic City of Meknes → back through Archaeological Site of Volubilis is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Archaeological Site of Volubilis → Fès El Bali is 100 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.