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 276 km round trip from Samarkand - roughly 4 h 04 in the saddle. On the way it passes Town of Ancient Penjikent, Gardani Khisor Settlement and back through Town of Ancient Penjikent. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,900 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.
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.
Kafirkala Settlement is where the day begins. Next is Town of Ancient Penjikent.
On a dusty loess terrace just outside modern Panjakent, a few low mud ridges and pits are all that remain of one of the richest cities on the Silk Road. Fourteen centuries ago this was a Sogdian town of merchants, with two-storey houses, temples and walls covered in paintings of feasts, heroes and gods. The best frescoes went to the Hermitage in St Petersburg and to the Rudaki museum in town, so bring some imagination with you, but standing among the excavated streets with the Zeravshan glittering below, the scale of the place still lands.
Read the complete Town of Ancient Penjikent write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Town of Ancient Penjikent comes up about 60 km into the recorded legs. Next is Gardani Khisor Settlement.
Khisor, or Hissar, is a word that turns up across Central Asia for a fortress, and Gardani Khisor is one of those lonely fortress-hills of the upper Zeravshan valley in Tajikistan. It stands a few kilometres from the river, west of the little town of Ayní, in country where the plain narrows and the Fan Mountains start to rear up to the south. I can tell you the setting better than the ruin, because there is not much published on the site and what stands is mostly broken walls and mounds, but the pattern is familiar. The Sogdians and their successors put small forts on rocky knolls to watch the river road and the side valleys, and the villagers below kept orchards and flocks within shouting distance of safety.
Read the complete Gardani Khisor Settlement write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 136 km into the recorded legs you reach Gardani Khisor Settlement. Next is back through Town of Ancient Penjikent.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Town of Ancient Penjikent write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Town of Ancient Penjikent, late in the day. Next is 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.
Back at Kafirkala Settlement. That is the ride.
Kafirkala Settlement → Town of Ancient Penjikent is 60 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Town of Ancient Penjikent → Gardani Khisor Settlement is 76 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Gardani Khisor Settlement → back through Town of Ancient Penjikent is 79 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Town of Ancient Penjikent → Kafirkala Settlement is 61 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.