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: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
564 km from Kolkhozobod to Kolkhozobod, about 9 h 43 of riding. The stops in between: Ajinatepa Buddhist monastery, Cultural Heritage Sites of Ancient Khuttal, Shahristoni Zoli Zar and back through Cultural Heritage Sites of Ancient Khuttal.
Southern Tajikistan is a land of wide river valleys and dry hills, where the Vakhsh and the Panj rivers flow towards the Amu Darya, the Oxus of the ancients, on the border with Afghanistan. Near the town of Kolkhozobod, known today by its newer name, lies Halevard, an archaeological site in the fertile Vakhsh valley. This region was part of ancient Bactria, a land of cities and fortresses that flourished under the Persians, the Greeks who followed Alexander the Great, and the Kushans.
Read the complete Halevard write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Halevard is where the day begins. Next is Ajinatepa Buddhist monastery.
In the Vakhsh valley of southern Tajikistan, near the city of Bokhtar, once called Qurghonteppa, a low mound of earth in the fields hides the remains of a Buddhist monastery from the seventh and eighth centuries. Excavations at Ajina Tepa, which means the hill of the demons in local tradition, revealed a complex of courtyards, cells, corridors and stupas, built of mud brick and decorated with paintings and clay sculptures. The most spectacular find, uncovered in 1966, was a giant reclining Buddha, around thirteen metres long, depicting the Buddha entering nirvana.
Read the complete Ajinatepa Buddhist monastery write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ajinatepa Buddhist monastery comes up about 96 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cultural Heritage Sites of Ancient Khuttal.
Khuttal was a medieval kingdom in the south of what is now Tajikistan, centred on the fertile valleys between the Vakhsh and Panj rivers, and it flourished as a crossroads of trade and culture between Central Asia, Iran and India. The region's heritage includes the ruins of palaces, towns and religious buildings, such as the citadel of Hulbuk, near Vose', a royal residence from the ninth to the eleventh centuries, with richly decorated walls, and the town of Kulob, with the mausoleum of the fourteenth-century Sufi scholar Mir Sayyid Ali Hamadani. Several of these sites have been nominated together for UNESCO recognition.
Read the complete Cultural Heritage Sites of Ancient Khuttal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 222 km into the recorded legs you reach Cultural Heritage Sites of Ancient Khuttal. Next is Shahristoni Zoli Zar.
Down in the far south of Tajikistan, in Khatlon province, the land flattens into the wide floodplain of the Panj, the river that forms the border with Afghanistan. The site named Shahristoni Zoli Zar lies in this country, some eighteen kilometres from Farkhor, and it is one of many ancient settlement mounds scattered across the region. Southern Tajikistan was part of ancient Bactria, later the heartland of the Kushan empire, and the fields here have yielded Buddhist and early Islamic remains. A shahriston, in the old local sense, was the inner walled town, and the name suggests that this mound once held a proper urban core.
Read the complete Shahristoni Zoli Zar write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Shahristoni Zoli Zar, about halfway. Next is back through Cultural Heritage Sites of Ancient Khuttal.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cultural Heritage Sites of Ancient Khuttal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Cultural Heritage Sites of Ancient Khuttal sits at 375 km, about halfway. Next is back through Ajinatepa Buddhist monastery.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ajinatepa Buddhist monastery write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Ajinatepa Buddhist monastery comes up about 468 km into the recorded legs. Next is Halevard.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Halevard write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Halevard closes the day.
Halevard → Ajinatepa Buddhist monastery is 96 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ajinatepa Buddhist monastery → Cultural Heritage Sites of Ancient Khuttal is 127 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cultural Heritage Sites of Ancient Khuttal → Shahristoni Zoli Zar is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Shahristoni Zoli Zar → back through Cultural Heritage Sites of Ancient Khuttal is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cultural Heritage Sites of Ancient Khuttal → back through Ajinatepa Buddhist monastery is 127 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Ajinatepa Buddhist monastery → Halevard is 96 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.