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.
256 km from Darkūsh to Darkūsh, about 5 h 23 of riding. The stops in between: Jebelal-A’la QalbLozé, Ancient Villages of Northern Syria, Ancient City of Aleppo and back through Ancient Villages of Northern Syria. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
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 is where the day begins. Next is Jebelal-A’la QalbLozé.
High on the limestone ridge of the Jebel al-A'la, in the north west of Syria near the Turkish border, stands one of the most beautiful early Christian churches anywhere. The basilica of Qalb Lozeh was built in the second half of the fifth century, probably as a pilgrimage church on the route to the shrine of Saint Simeon Stylites, the hermit who spent decades living on top of a pillar not far to the east. Its facade, with a great arch flanked by two towers, is one of the earliest examples of a design that would later be repeated in the Romanesque churches of Europe. The church is part of the Ancient Villages of Northern Syria, a UNESCO site listed in 2011, which includes some forty villages abandoned between the eighth and tenth centuries, often known as the Dead Cities.
Read the complete Jebelal-A’la QalbLozé write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Jebelal-A’la QalbLozé comes up about 38 km into the recorded legs. Next is Ancient Villages of Northern Syria.
On the limestone hills west of Aleppo, hundreds of abandoned villages stand in a landscape of olive groves and stony fields, their houses, churches, oil presses and tombs built of finely cut stone between the first and seventh centuries. These are the Ancient Villages of Northern Syria, often called the Dead Cities, listed by UNESCO in 2011. They were prosperous farming communities in the late Roman and Byzantine periods, growing olives and grapes for trade, and were abandoned for reasons still debated, perhaps changing trade routes and the political upheavals of the seventh century.
Read the complete Ancient Villages of Northern Syria write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 88 km into the recorded legs you reach Ancient Villages of Northern Syria. Next is Ancient City of Aleppo.
Aleppo has a claim to be one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, and for most of its history it was a great trading city at the western end of the Silk Road. Its old town, listed by UNESCO in 1986, grew around a massive citadel on a mound in the centre, ringed by a moat and entered through a fortified gateway and bridge, mostly the work of the Ayyubid rulers in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Around it lay the souqs, kilometres of covered markets, among the largest in the Middle East, and caravanserais, mosques, madrasas and fine courtyard houses.
Read the complete Ancient City of Aleppo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ancient City of Aleppo, about halfway. Next is back through Ancient Villages of Northern Syria.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ancient Villages of Northern Syria write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Ancient Villages of Northern Syria sits at 147 km, about halfway. Next is back through Jebelal-A’la QalbLozé.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Jebelal-A’la QalbLozé write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Jebelal-A’la QalbLozé comes up about 217 km into the recorded legs. Next is 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.
Jebel Wastani Kafr Aqareb closes the day.
Jebel Wastani Kafr Aqareb → Jebelal-A’la QalbLozé is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Jebelal-A’la QalbLozé → Ancient Villages of Northern Syria is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ancient Villages of Northern Syria → Ancient City of Aleppo is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ancient City of Aleppo → back through Ancient Villages of Northern Syria is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Ancient Villages of Northern Syria → back through Jebelal-A’la QalbLozé is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Jebelal-A’la QalbLozé → Jebel Wastani Kafr Aqareb is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.