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.
From Dārat ‘Izzah it runs 161 km to Dārat ‘Izzah; allow about 3 h 10 of riding. On the way it passes Jebel Barisha Deirouné, Jebel Wastani Kafr Aqareb and back through Jebel Barisha Deirouné. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Saint Simeon the Stylite spent more than three decades on top of a pillar, and the ruins of the great church built around that pillar still stand in the limestone hills northwest of Aleppo. Simeon, a fifth-century monk from the region, withdrew from the world by climbing onto a column that was raised gradually to about eighteen metres, and from there he preached, prayed and advised pilgrims until his death in 459. Pilgrims came from across the Byzantine world, and within a few decades, a vast cruciform church, one of the largest of its time, rose around the base of the pillar.
Read the complete Jebel Sem’an 1 Qal’atSem’an write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Jebel Sem’an 1 Qal’atSem’an is where the day begins. Next is Jebel Barisha Deirouné.
On the limestone ridge of Jebel Barisha, in north-west Syria near the Turkish border at Reyhanlı, lie the stone ruins of Deirouné, one of the hundreds of late Roman and Byzantine villages that UNESCO lists as the Ancient Villages of Northern Syria, often called the Dead Cities. Between roughly the first and seventh centuries, farmers here grew olives and vines on the uplands, prospered, and built houses, churches and olive presses in finely cut stone. When the trade networks that sustained them collapsed, the villages were slowly abandoned, and the dry climate left them remarkably intact.
Read the complete Jebel Barisha Deirouné write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Jebel Barisha Deirouné comes up about 33 km into the recorded legs. Next is Jebel Wastani Kafr Aqareb.
Along the limestone uplands of north-western Syria, close to the Turkish border, lie the remains of hundreds of abandoned villages from late antiquity, the so-called Dead Cities. Kafr Aqareb, on the Jebel Wastani, is one of them, part of the Ancient Villages of Northern Syria listed by UNESCO in 2011. These were prosperous farming communities between roughly the first and seventh centuries, growing olives, grapes and grain, and producing oil that was traded across the Roman and Byzantine world. They built in stone, with remarkable skill: houses, churches, bath houses, olive presses and tombs, many still standing to roof height. When trade routes shifted and the region changed hands, the villages were gradually abandoned, leaving ghost towns that look as if their inhabitants left only recently.
Read the complete Jebel Wastani Kafr Aqareb write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 79 km into the recorded legs you reach Jebel Wastani Kafr Aqareb. Next is back through Jebel Barisha Deirouné.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Jebel Barisha Deirouné write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Jebel Barisha Deirouné, late in the day. Next is Jebel Sem’an 1 Qal’atSem’an.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Jebel Sem’an 1 Qal’atSem’an write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Jebel Sem’an 1 Qal’atSem’an. That is the ride.
Jebel Sem’an 1 Qal’atSem’an → Jebel Barisha Deirouné is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Jebel Barisha Deirouné → Jebel Wastani Kafr Aqareb is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Jebel Wastani Kafr Aqareb → back through Jebel Barisha Deirouné is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Jebel Barisha Deirouné → Jebel Sem’an 1 Qal’atSem’an is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.