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 389 km round trip from Shahrisabz - roughly 6 h 56 in the saddle. On the way it passes Suleimantepa, Kafirkala Settlement, Jartepa II Temple and Sanjarshakh Settlement. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,300 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Uzbekistan into Tajikistan - carry ID and check the toll rules. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Timur, the conqueror known in the West as Tamerlane, was born in 1336 in a village near Shakhrisyabz, and when he became ruler of an empire stretching from Delhi to Damascus, he spent heavily on his home town. He made it a showpiece, and the main monument was Ak-Saray, the White Palace, begun in 1380 and never completed in his lifetime. Only two piers of the entrance portal survive, but they rise about thirty-eight metres, covered in blue, turquoise and gold tilework, and they still dwarf everything around them, a statement of power so big that it is hard to photograph from close up.
Read the complete Historic Centre of Shakhrisyabz write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Historic Centre of Shakhrisyabz is where the day begins. Next is Suleimantepa.
Urgut is only a few kilometres from here, and if you ride into town on a market day you will understand quickly why the Silk Road needed places like this. The bazaar in Urgut is one of the biggest in Uzbekistan, sprawling, loud and full of everything from suzani embroidery and old coins to cattle and car parts. Suleimantepa, a low mound just outside, is one of the archaeological sites recognised as part of the Zarafshan valley corridor of the Silk Roads, the chain of settlements, forts and caravan stops along the river that fed Samarkand and Bukhara.
Read the complete Suleimantepa write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Suleimantepa comes up about 86 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 125 km into the recorded legs you reach Kafirkala Settlement. Next is Jartepa II Temple.
The Zarafshan valley is the green artery of central Uzbekistan, carrying meltwater from the mountains of Tajikistan west past Samarkand and Bukhara into the desert. South of Samarkand, the land rises into the foothills of the Zarafshan range, and it is here, near Urgut and close to the Tajik border, that the Jartepa site lies, with remains of a temple from the Sogdian era.
Read the complete Jartepa II Temple write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Jartepa II Temple, about halfway. Next is Sanjarshakh Settlement.
Sanjarshakh lies in the Zarafshan valley of Tajikistan, a short ride from the town of Panjakent, and its low mounds and walls are the remains of a Sogdian settlement. The Sogdians were the great merchants of Central Asia, who spoke an Iranian language and carried silk, spices, paper and ideas along the Silk Road from China to Persia and beyond, and their language was the common tongue of the trade routes for several centuries. Their towns lay in the valleys of the Zarafshan and the Kashkadarya, and Panjakent, a few kilometres from here, is the best known, with houses decorated with wall paintings of epic stories, banquets and gods, that are now in the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg.
Read the complete Sanjarshakh Settlement write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sanjarshakh Settlement sits at 190 km, about halfway. Next is back through Jartepa II Temple.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Jartepa II Temple write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Jartepa II Temple comes up about 230 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Kafirkala Settlement.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kafirkala Settlement write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 263 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Kafirkala Settlement. Next is back through Suleimantepa.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Suleimantepa write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Suleimantepa, late in the day. Next is Historic Centre of Shakhrisyabz.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Historic Centre of Shakhrisyabz write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 389 km.
Historic Centre of Shakhrisyabz → Suleimantepa is 86 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Suleimantepa → Kafirkala Settlement is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kafirkala Settlement → Jartepa II Temple is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Jartepa II Temple → Sanjarshakh Settlement is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sanjarshakh Settlement → back through Jartepa II Temple is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Jartepa II Temple → back through Kafirkala Settlement is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Kafirkala Settlement → back through Suleimantepa is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Suleimantepa → Historic Centre of Shakhrisyabz is 88 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.