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.
426 km from Arad to Arad, about 7 h 32 of riding. On the way it passes Hebron/Al-Khalil Old Town, Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls, Baptism Site “Bethany Beyond the Jordan” and As-Salt - The Place of Tolerance and Urban. It crosses Israel, Palestinian Territories and Jordan - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. The line favours views over speed.
44 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it — speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through.
41 km on Baptism Site “Bethany Beyond the Jordan” → As-Salt - The Place of Tole.
The Dead Sea lies more than four hundred metres below sea level, the lowest point on land, and Masada rises above its western shore as a vast flat-topped rock with sheer cliffs on every side. King Herod built a palace fortress here in the first century BC, with storerooms, cisterns, bathhouses and a three-tiered palace hanging from the northern cliff. After the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in AD 70, a group of Jewish rebels held out on the rock against the Roman army. The Romans built a siege ramp up the western side, and according to the historian Josephus, when the walls were breached, the defenders chose to die rather than be captured.
Read the complete Masada write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Masada is where the day begins. Next is Hebron/Al-Khalil Old Town.
Hebron, al-Khalil in Arabic, is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the Middle East, set in the hills of the southern West Bank. Its heart is the old town, a warren of stone alleys, covered souqs and Mamluk-era houses, grouped around the great mosque built over the Cave of the Patriarchs, where tradition places the tombs of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their wives. The site is holy to Muslims, Jews and Christians, and its name in Arabic, al-Khalil, means the friend, a reference to Abraham as the friend of God.
Read the complete Hebron/Al-Khalil Old Town write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hebron/Al-Khalil Old Town comes up about 75 km into the recorded legs. Next is Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls.
Few square kilometres on earth carry as much weight as these. The Old City of Jerusalem holds sites sacred to Judaism, Christianity and Islam, packed into a maze of stone lanes inside walls built by the Ottoman sultan Suleiman the Magnificent in the 1530s. The Western Wall, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Dome of the Rock and the al-Aqsa Mosque lie within a few minutes' walk of each other, and the city's four traditional quarters, Jewish, Christian, Muslim and Armenian, each have their own character, markets and rhythms. The Old City and its walls were added to the UNESCO list in 1981.
Read the complete Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 114 km into the recorded legs you reach Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls. Next is Baptism Site “Bethany Beyond the Jordan”.
Down here you are well below sea level, close to four hundred metres under it, and the air shows it: thick, warm and heavy, with a mineral haze rising off the Dead Sea a few kilometres to the south. The baptism site known as Bethany Beyond the Jordan, Al-Maghtas in Arabic, lies on the east bank of the river Jordan, the place many Christians identify with the baptism of Jesus by John. Across a narrow, muddy channel of water stands Qasr al-Yahud on the western side, close to Jericho, and the two banks look at each other across one of the world's most heavily watched borders.
Read the complete Baptism Site “Bethany Beyond the Jordan” write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Baptism Site “Bethany Beyond the Jordan”, about halfway. Next is As-Salt - The Place of Tolerance and Urban.
As-Salt climbs three steep hills in the Balqa highlands north-west of Amman, a town of honey-coloured limestone houses with arched windows, terraced streets and long staircases. In the late Ottoman period, from the 1860s to the 1920s, it was the most important town in the region east of the Jordan, a trading hub where merchants from Nablus, Damascus and Beirut settled and built grand houses in a mix of local and European styles. Muslims and Christians lived side by side, sharing guesthouses and charitable traditions, and the town was inscribed on the UNESCO list in 2021 as As-Salt, the Place of Tolerance and Urban Hospitality.
Read the complete As-Salt - The Place of Tolerance and Urban write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
As-Salt - The Place of Tolerance and Urban sits at 166 km, about halfway. Next is back through Baptism Site “Bethany Beyond the Jordan”.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Baptism Site “Bethany Beyond the Jordan” write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Baptism Site “Bethany Beyond the Jordan” comes up about 253 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 312 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls. Next is back through Hebron/Al-Khalil Old Town.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hebron/Al-Khalil Old Town write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Hebron/Al-Khalil Old Town, late in the day. Next is Masada.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Masada write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 426 km.
Masada → Hebron/Al-Khalil Old Town is 75 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hebron/Al-Khalil Old Town → Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls → Baptism Site “Bethany Beyond the Jordan” is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Baptism Site “Bethany Beyond the Jordan” → As-Salt - The Place of Tolerance and Urban is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
As-Salt - The Place of Tolerance and Urban → back through Baptism Site “Bethany Beyond the Jordan” is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Baptism Site “Bethany Beyond the Jordan” → back through Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls → back through Hebron/Al-Khalil Old Town is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hebron/Al-Khalil Old Town → Masada is 75 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.