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 362 km round trip from Qobustan - roughly 5 h 33 in the saddle. The stops in between: Walled City of Baku with the Shirvanshah's, Cultural Landscape of Khinalig People and and back through Walled City of Baku with the Shirvanshah's. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,300 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. Expect gradients and long views.
The plateau of Gobustan is a dry, stony place, grey and ochre, with boulders scattered across low hills as if a giant had emptied a bag of rubble and left. Kichikdash, whose name means Little Stone, is one of those hills, a rocky outcrop in the reserve a few kilometres from the town of Qobustan, with the Caspian Sea visible in the distance on a clear day. Its bigger neighbour is Boyukdash, Big Stone, and together they hold some of the oldest pictures in the Caucasus.
Read the complete Kichikdash mountain write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kichikdash mountain is where the day begins. Next is Walled City of Baku with the Shirvanshah's.
Baku is windy by name and by nature, and the old walled city on the Caspian shore has been catching the wind for about a thousand years. Inside the walls, known locally as Icherisheher, a maze of narrow stone lanes winds between mosques, caravanserais and houses with carved balconies. The Maiden Tower, a stout round tower of mysterious age and purpose, rises near the sea, and the Palace of the Shirvanshahs, built in the fifteenth century as the residence of the rulers of Shirvan, sits on the hill above. UNESCO listed the walled city and the palace together in 2000.
Read the complete Walled City of Baku with the Shirvanshah's write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Walled City of Baku with the Shirvanshah's comes up about 59 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cultural Landscape of Khinalig People and.
The Greater Caucasus in Azerbaijan is a wall of limestone and shale that rises abruptly from the Caspian lowlands, and at its heart lives one of the oldest and most isolated communities in the country. The Khinalig people speak a language found nowhere else, farm and herd at over two thousand metres, and live in stone houses with flat roofs that sit so close together that you can walk from one yard to the next across the rooftops. The village is among the highest permanently inhabited places in Europe, and in winter the snow can cut it off for days.
Read the complete Cultural Landscape of Khinalig People and write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 176 km into the recorded legs you reach Cultural Landscape of Khinalig People and. Next is back through Walled City of Baku with the Shirvanshah's.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Walled City of Baku with the Shirvanshah's write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Walled City of Baku with the Shirvanshah's, late in the day. Next is Kichikdash mountain.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kichikdash mountain write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Kichikdash mountain. That is the ride.
Kichikdash mountain → Walled City of Baku with the Shirvanshah's is 59 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Walled City of Baku with the Shirvanshah's → Cultural Landscape of Khinalig People and is 117 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Cultural Landscape of Khinalig People and → back through Walled City of Baku with the Shirvanshah's is 128 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Walled City of Baku with the Shirvanshah's → Kichikdash mountain is 58 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.