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 346 km to Dārat ‘Izzah; allow about 6 h 26 of riding. The stops in between: Jebel Wastani Kafr Aqareb, Qal’at Salah El-Din and back through Jebel Wastani Kafr Aqareb. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
The limestone massif north-west of Aleppo, in Syria, is one of the most remarkable archaeological landscapes in the Middle East, but it has also been in a war zone for more than a decade, and travel there is not safe or practical. What follows is about what the place is, not an invitation to visit.
Read the complete Jebel Sem’an 3 Sinkhar write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Jebel Sem’an 3 Sinkhar is where the day begins. 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.
Jebel Wastani Kafr Aqareb comes up about 79 km into the recorded legs. Next is Qal’at Salah El-Din.
Few castles are as dramatic as the one that sits on a spur of rock in the coastal mountains of Syria, between two deep ravines. Qal'at Salah El-Din, or Saladin's Castle, takes its name from the Muslim leader who captured it from the Crusaders in 1188 on his campaign along the coast, but the story is much older. The site was fortified in Byzantine times, taken by the Crusaders in the early twelfth century, and strengthened with new walls and towers. The great trench that separates the castle from the rest of the ridge is cut out of solid rock, many metres deep, and in the middle of it a slender needle of stone, about twenty-eight metres high, was left standing to carry the drawbridge. It is one of the great sights of medieval military architecture.
Read the complete Qal’at Salah El-Din write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 171 km into the recorded legs you reach Qal’at Salah El-Din. Next is back through Jebel Wastani Kafr Aqareb.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Jebel Wastani Kafr Aqareb write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Jebel Wastani Kafr Aqareb, late in the day. Next is Jebel Sem’an 3 Sinkhar.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Jebel Sem’an 3 Sinkhar write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Jebel Sem’an 3 Sinkhar. That is the ride.
Jebel Sem’an 3 Sinkhar → Jebel Wastani Kafr Aqareb is 79 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Jebel Wastani Kafr Aqareb → Qal’at Salah El-Din is 92 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Qal’at Salah El-Din → back through Jebel Wastani Kafr Aqareb is 94 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Jebel Wastani Kafr Aqareb → Jebel Sem’an 3 Sinkhar is 81 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.