Kizil Cave-Temple Complex and Subash Buddhist Ruins

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Kizil Cave-Temple Complex

   Kizil is a Turkic word meaning red, and the name suits the landscape around these caves, where bare ridges of rust-coloured rock stand over the Muzat river on the northern edge of the Taklamakan Desert. Between about the third and eighth centuries, Buddhist monks cut hundreds of caves into a sandstone cliff here, some as cells to live and meditate in, some as halls with a central pillar around which pilgrims could walk, and covered the walls with murals. This was the kingdom of Kucha, a rich oasis state on the northern Silk Road, and its artists blended Indian, Persian and Chinese styles into something distinctive.

   Read the complete Kizil Cave-Temple Complex write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Kizil Cave-Temple Complex is where the day begins. Next is Kizilgaha Beacon Tower.

2. 2. Kizilgaha Beacon Tower

   The Silk Road did not take a single line across Central Asia, it split around the Taklamakan desert, and along its northern branch, under the snow peaks of the Tian Shan, lay a chain of oasis towns. Kuqa was one of the biggest, the old kingdom of Kucha, a centre of Buddhism, music and dance, and the home of the monk Kumarajiva, who translated Buddhist texts into Chinese. Kizilgaha, a few kilometres from the town, holds one of the beacon towers that the Han and Tang dynasties built to signal across the desert, a squat tower of rammed earth, about the height of a three-storey house, standing on a rise over a dry plain.

   Read the complete Kizilgaha Beacon Tower write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Kizilgaha Beacon Tower comes up about 65 km into the recorded legs. Next is Subash Buddhist Ruins.

3. 3. Subash Buddhist Ruins

   The Tarim Basin is a very large, very dry bowl, and Kuqa sits on its northern rim where the Tian Shan drops its meltwater onto the plain. Subash, about eighteen kilometres north of town, is what remains of a Buddhist monastery that once straddled the Kuqa river, with one half of the complex on each bank. The river is a gravel-and-mud braid for most of the year, and the ruins around it are the colour of the ground: mud-brick stupas, walls and cell blocks that have been eroded into soft shapes by centuries of wind and the occasional flood.

   Read the complete Subash Buddhist Ruins write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 96 km into the recorded legs you reach Subash Buddhist Ruins. Next is back through Kizilgaha Beacon Tower.

4. 4. back through Kizilgaha Beacon Tower

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Kizilgaha Beacon Tower write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Kizilgaha Beacon Tower, late in the day. Next is Kizil Cave-Temple Complex.

5. 5. Kizil Cave-Temple Complex

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Kizil Cave-Temple Complex write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at Kizil Cave-Temple Complex. That is the ride.