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.
308 km from Ayní to Ayní, about 5 h 36 of riding. It goes by way of Tali Khamtuda Fortress, Toksankoriz Irrigation System, Mausoleum of Khoja Mukhammad Bashoro and Sanjarshakh Settlement. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,900 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
The Zeravshan is the river that waters Samarkand and Bukhara far downstream, and up here in its upper valley it is a cold, hurrying thing between steep walls of the Zeravshan and Hissar ranges. The Kum area lies on the way between Ayní and the Fan Mountains, in Tajikistan's Sughd region, and it belongs to the Sogdian world, the merchant culture that carried silk, glass, paper and ideas along the old routes between China and Persia. Settlement mounds and fortress sites dot the valley, some of them partly worn away by farming and floods, and the area holds a few of the most famous finds of Sogdian history, among them the archives of letters and contracts found in the twentieth century on a nearby mountain.
Read the complete Kum Settlement write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kum Settlement is where the day begins. Next is Tali Khamtuda Fortress.
The Zeravshan valley in northwestern Tajikistan is one of the old arteries of Central Asia, a fertile ribbon of green squeezed between the Turkestan and Zeravshan ranges, and in the hills above it lie the ruins of fortresses that once guarded the eastern approaches to Sogdiana. Tali Khamtuda is one of these, and nearby stands the castle on Mount Mugh, where one of the most dramatic stories of the region took place. In 722 Devashtich, the ruler of Panjakent, fled here with his people from the advancing Arab armies, and after a siege he surrendered and was executed. In 1933 a shepherd found a basket of documents in the ruins, written on leather, paper and wood in the Sogdian language, which turned out to be Devashtich's archive and one of the most important sources for understanding Sogdian society.
Read the complete Tali Khamtuda Fortress write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Tali Khamtuda Fortress comes up about 67 km into the recorded legs. Next is Toksankoriz Irrigation System.
Water is the oldest story in Central Asia, and the Zeravshan valley has told it for thousands of years. The river, whose name means gold-bearing, runs down from the glaciers of the Pamir-Alay in Tajikistan and into the desert of Uzbekistan, and every village along it lives by canals and underground channels. The word koriz, or kariz, is the local name for a qanat, a gently sloping tunnel that carries groundwater from the foothills to the fields, and the name Toksankoriz, as I read it, points to a system of many such channels.
Read the complete Toksankoriz Irrigation System write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 97 km into the recorded legs you reach Toksankoriz Irrigation System. Next is Mausoleum of Khoja Mukhammad Bashoro.
Panjakent sits in the upper Zeravshan valley in north-western Tajikistan, close to the border with Uzbekistan and Samarkand, and the valley has been a corridor for traders, armies and ideas since long before the Silk Road had a name. Near the village of Mazori Sharif, in the hills south of the river, stands the mausoleum of Khoja Muhammad Bashoro, built in the eleventh century, famous for its portal decorated with intricate carved terracotta, a fine example of early Islamic architecture in Central Asia. It remains a place of pilgrimage, and visitors should dress modestly and respect those who come to pray.
Read the complete Mausoleum of Khoja Mukhammad Bashoro write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Mausoleum of Khoja Mukhammad Bashoro, about halfway. Next is Sanjarshakh Settlement.
Sanjarshakh lies in the Zarafshan valley of Tajikistan, a short ride from the town of Panjakent, and its low mounds and walls are the remains of a Sogdian settlement. The Sogdians were the great merchants of Central Asia, who spoke an Iranian language and carried silk, spices, paper and ideas along the Silk Road from China to Persia and beyond, and their language was the common tongue of the trade routes for several centuries. Their towns lay in the valleys of the Zarafshan and the Kashkadarya, and Panjakent, a few kilometres from here, is the best known, with houses decorated with wall paintings of epic stories, banquets and gods, that are now in the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg.
Read the complete Sanjarshakh Settlement write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sanjarshakh Settlement sits at 120 km, about halfway. Next is back through Mausoleum of Khoja Mukhammad Bashoro.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Mausoleum of Khoja Mukhammad Bashoro write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Mausoleum of Khoja Mukhammad Bashoro comes up about 176 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Toksankoriz Irrigation System.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Toksankoriz Irrigation System write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 204 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Toksankoriz Irrigation System. Next is back through Tali Khamtuda Fortress.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Tali Khamtuda Fortress write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Tali Khamtuda Fortress, late in the day. Next is Kum Settlement.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kum Settlement write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 308 km.
Kum Settlement → Tali Khamtuda Fortress is 67 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Tali Khamtuda Fortress → Toksankoriz Irrigation System is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Toksankoriz Irrigation System → Mausoleum of Khoja Mukhammad Bashoro is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Mausoleum of Khoja Mukhammad Bashoro → Sanjarshakh Settlement is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sanjarshakh Settlement → back through Mausoleum of Khoja Mukhammad Bashoro is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Mausoleum of Khoja Mukhammad Bashoro → back through Toksankoriz Irrigation System is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Toksankoriz Irrigation System → back through Tali Khamtuda Fortress is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Tali Khamtuda Fortress → Kum Settlement is 70 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.