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 297 km round trip from Ayní - roughly 4 h 26 in the saddle. On the way it passes Toksankoriz Irrigation System, Kafirkala Settlement and back through Toksankoriz Irrigation System. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,900 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Tajikistan into Uzbekistan - carry ID and check the toll rules. The line favours views over speed.
Khisor, or Hissar, is a word that turns up across Central Asia for a fortress, and Gardani Khisor is one of those lonely fortress-hills of the upper Zeravshan valley in Tajikistan. It stands a few kilometres from the river, west of the little town of Ayní, in country where the plain narrows and the Fan Mountains start to rear up to the south. I can tell you the setting better than the ruin, because there is not much published on the site and what stands is mostly broken walls and mounds, but the pattern is familiar. The Sogdians and their successors put small forts on rocky knolls to watch the river road and the side valleys, and the villagers below kept orchards and flocks within shouting distance of safety.
Read the complete Gardani Khisor Settlement write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Gardani Khisor Settlement is where the day begins. Next is Toksankoriz Irrigation System.
Water is the oldest story in Central Asia, and the Zeravshan valley has told it for thousands of years. The river, whose name means gold-bearing, runs down from the glaciers of the Pamir-Alay in Tajikistan and into the desert of Uzbekistan, and every village along it lives by canals and underground channels. The word koriz, or kariz, is the local name for a qanat, a gently sloping tunnel that carries groundwater from the foothills to the fields, and the name Toksankoriz, as I read it, points to a system of many such channels.
Read the complete Toksankoriz Irrigation System write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Toksankoriz Irrigation System comes up about 72 km into the recorded legs. Next is Kafirkala Settlement.
A few kilometres south of Samarkand, on a mound beside an old irrigation canal, lie the ruins of Kafirkala, a fortified settlement that was an important centre of the Sogdian civilisation before the Arab conquest in the eighth century. The name means fortress of the infidels, given later by Muslim inhabitants. Excavations have revealed a citadel with walls, a palace and remains that tell of the last days of the Sogdian rulers before the city was burned.
Read the complete Kafirkala Settlement write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 149 km into the recorded legs you reach Kafirkala Settlement. Next is back through Toksankoriz Irrigation System.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Toksankoriz Irrigation System write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Toksankoriz Irrigation System, late in the day. Next is Gardani Khisor Settlement.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Gardani Khisor Settlement write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Gardani Khisor Settlement. That is the ride.
Gardani Khisor Settlement → Toksankoriz Irrigation System is 72 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Toksankoriz Irrigation System → Kafirkala Settlement is 77 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Kafirkala Settlement → back through Toksankoriz Irrigation System is 70 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Toksankoriz Irrigation System → Gardani Khisor Settlement is 78 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.