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.
From Kashihara it runs 90 km to Kashihara; allow about 1 h 48 of riding. On the way it passes Terayama-minamiyama Kofun, Hokki-ji Area and back through Terayama-minamiyama Kofun. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
South of Nara city, the plain is flat and green, with rice paddies in every direction and low, rounded mountains standing on its rim, and the first Japanese states grew here. Kashihara, on the southern side of the basin, sits near the old capitals of Asuka and Fujiwara, where the court and the first lasting Buddhist temples took shape in the sixth and seventh centuries. Kurizuka is one of the many kofun, ancient burial mounds, scattered around the district, and it is a modest, tree-covered hump rather than a spectacular monument.
Read the complete Kurizuka Kofun write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kurizuka Kofun is where the day begins. Next is Terayama-minamiyama Kofun.
Sakai is a port city on Osaka Bay, and its most extraordinary feature is that it is built around tombs. The Mozu group, named after the old name of this district, includes Daisen, the tomb attributed to Emperor Nintoku, which is among the largest burial monuments in the world by area, a keyhole-shaped mound nearly five hundred metres long, surrounded by triple moats. Standing beside it you see only a wooded hill behind a wall of water, and the true shape is visible only from the air. Smaller mounds, including those at Terayama and Minamiyama, lie scattered among streets and houses, each with a fringe of trees.
Read the complete Terayama-minamiyama Kofun write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Terayama-minamiyama Kofun comes up about 14 km into the recorded legs. Next is Hokki-ji Area.
Ikaruga, a quiet town on the western edge of the Nara basin, is where Japanese Buddhist architecture begins. The temple of Hōryū-ji, founded by Prince Shōtoku in the early seventh century, has wooden buildings counted among the oldest surviving in the world, and in 1993 the Buddhist Monuments in the Hōryū-ji Area became, along with Himeji Castle, the first Japanese sites on the UNESCO list. A short distance north, among rice fields and houses, Hokki-ji is a smaller temple with a single treasure: a three-storey pagoda completed in the early eighth century, the oldest of its type in Japan. Seen across the fields with the hills behind, it is a lovely, peaceful sight.
Read the complete Hokki-ji Area write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 45 km into the recorded legs you reach Hokki-ji Area. Next is back through Terayama-minamiyama Kofun.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Terayama-minamiyama Kofun write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Terayama-minamiyama Kofun, late in the day. Next is Kurizuka Kofun.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kurizuka Kofun write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Kurizuka Kofun. That is the ride.
Kurizuka Kofun → Terayama-minamiyama Kofun is 14 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Terayama-minamiyama Kofun → Hokki-ji Area is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hokki-ji Area → back through Terayama-minamiyama Kofun is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Terayama-minamiyama Kofun → Kurizuka Kofun is 14 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.