Why this ride
The stops in between: Takhirbaj Tepe, Yaz and Gobekli Tepes, Timurid iwans or Askhab and back through Yaz and Gobekli Tepes. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Kushmeihan and Timurid iwans or Askhab
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 234 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 5 h 58
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. 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.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Kushmeihan
The Murghab river comes out of the Afghan hills and dies in the sands of the Karakum, and where it spreads out near the town of Mary it created the oasis of Merv, one of the great cities of the medieval world. Kushmeihan is one of the sites scattered across that oasis, a low ruin in the flat, brown country east of the more famous monuments. The ancient Merv complex is listed by UNESCO, and the label here belongs to the same landscape of ramparts, mounds and mudbrick that stretches for many kilometres.
Read the complete Kushmeihan write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Kushmeihan is where the day begins. Next is Takhirbaj Tepe.
2. Takhirbaj Tepe
The Murghab river flows out of the mountains of Afghanistan and dies in the sands of the Karakum desert, and where it fans out into a delta lies the oasis of Merv, in what is now southern Turkmenistan. For thousands of years people have farmed here, building cities one beside another as rivers shifted and empires came and went. Takhirbaj Tepe is one of the oldest of these settlements, a mound in the northern part of the oasis dating back to the Bronze and Iron Ages, long before the great medieval city that made Merv famous. It forms part of the State Historical and Cultural Park Ancient Merv, listed by UNESCO in 1999, alongside sites such as Yaz Tepe and Gobekli Tepe nearby.
Read the complete Takhirbaj Tepe write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Takhirbaj Tepe comes up 33 km in. Next is Yaz and Gobekli Tepes.
3. Yaz and Gobekli Tepes
Out on the edge of the Murghab oasis in south-eastern Turkmenistan, where irrigated cotton fields meet the sand of the Karakum, low mounds rise from the flat land. Tepe means hill, and these hills are the eroded remains of ancient settlements: Yaz Depe, which gave its name to an Iron Age culture of the early first millennium BC, and Gobekli Depe nearby. To an untrained eye they are just humps of clay, but they belong to one of the longest continuous stories of settlement in Central Asia.
Read the complete Yaz and Gobekli Tepes write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
67 km in you reach Yaz and Gobekli Tepes. Next is Timurid iwans or Askhab.
4. Timurid iwans or Askhab
Just outside the town of Bayramaly in Turkmenistan's Mary region lies the biggest archaeological landscape in Central Asia, the oasis of Merv. People have farmed here since the Bronze Age, thanks to the Murghab river, which fans out into the Karakum desert and makes a green island in a sea of sand. Over the centuries, Merv became a great Silk Road city, called Mary or Marw, and at its height in the twelfth century under the Seljuk sultans it was one of the largest cities in the world. Then, in 1221, the Mongols came, and the chroniclers wrote of enormous slaughter. The city never recovered its former glory.
Read the complete Timurid iwans or Askhab write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Timurid iwans or Askhab, about halfway. Next is back through Yaz and Gobekli Tepes.
5. back through Yaz and Gobekli Tepes
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Yaz and Gobekli Tepes write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Yaz and Gobekli Tepes sits at 133 km, about halfway. Next is back through Takhirbaj Tepe.
6. back through Takhirbaj Tepe
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Takhirbaj Tepe write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Takhirbaj Tepe comes up 167 km in. Next is Kushmeihan.
7. Kushmeihan
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kushmeihan write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Kushmeihan closes the day.
Leg by leg
Kushmeihan to Takhirbaj Tepe
Kushmeihan → Takhirbaj Tepe is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Takhirbaj Tepe to Yaz and Gobekli Tepes
Takhirbaj Tepe → Yaz and Gobekli Tepes is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Yaz and Gobekli Tepes to Timurid iwans or Askhab
Yaz and Gobekli Tepes → Timurid iwans or Askhab is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Timurid iwans or Askhab to back through Yaz and Gobekli Tepes
Timurid iwans or Askhab → back through Yaz and Gobekli Tepes is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Yaz and Gobekli Tepes to back through Takhirbaj Tepe
back through Yaz and Gobekli Tepes → back through Takhirbaj Tepe is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Takhirbaj Tepe to Kushmeihan
back through Takhirbaj Tepe → Kushmeihan is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.