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.
185 km from Ayní to Ayní, about 3 h 02 of riding. On the way it passes Tali Khamtuda Fortress, Toksankoriz Irrigation System and back through Tali Khamtuda Fortress. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,900 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
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 Tali Khamtuda Fortress.
The Zeravshan valley in northwestern Tajikistan is one of the old arteries of Central Asia, a fertile ribbon of green squeezed between the Turkestan and Zeravshan ranges, and in the hills above it lie the ruins of fortresses that once guarded the eastern approaches to Sogdiana. Tali Khamtuda is one of these, and nearby stands the castle on Mount Mugh, where one of the most dramatic stories of the region took place. In 722 Devashtich, the ruler of Panjakent, fled here with his people from the advancing Arab armies, and after a siege he surrendered and was executed. In 1933 a shepherd found a basket of documents in the ruins, written on leather, paper and wood in the Sogdian language, which turned out to be Devashtich's archive and one of the most important sources for understanding Sogdian society.
Read the complete Tali Khamtuda Fortress write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Tali Khamtuda Fortress comes up about 59 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 89 km into the recorded legs you reach Toksankoriz Irrigation System. Next is back through Tali Khamtuda Fortress.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Tali Khamtuda Fortress write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Tali Khamtuda Fortress, 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 → Tali Khamtuda Fortress is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Tali Khamtuda Fortress → Toksankoriz Irrigation System is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Toksankoriz Irrigation System → back through Tali Khamtuda Fortress is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Tali Khamtuda Fortress → Gardani Khisor Settlement is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.