CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
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.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
246 km from Bayramaly to Bayramaly, about 5 h 17 of riding. It goes by way of Mausolea of Imam Bakr and Shafi, Greater and Lesser Nagym Kalas, Takhirbaj Tepe and back through Greater and Lesser Nagym Kalas. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Some places in Merv are enormous and some are intimate, and this belongs to the second kind. The mausoleum of Imam Qasim is a small pilgrimage site in the oasis, a place for quiet prayer rather than spectacle, the sort of shrine that has drawn local visitors for a very long time. It sits in the broad landscape of Merv, east of the Karakum desert, within a few kilometres of the town of Bayramaly, and the contrast between the quiet shrine and the huge empty ruins nearby is a big part of its character.
Read the complete Mausoleum of Imam Qasim write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Mausoleum of Imam Qasim is where the day begins. Next is Mausolea of Imam Bakr and Shafi.
The Merv oasis in southern Turkmenistan was once one of the greatest cities of the medieval world. Watered by the Murghab river, which flows north from Afghanistan and fans out into the Karakum desert, it was a capital of the Seljuk sultans in the eleventh and twelfth centuries and a key stop on the Silk Road. The Mongols destroyed it in 1221, and the ruins of successive cities, spread over a huge area, now form the Ancient Merv archaeological park, inscribed on the UNESCO list in 1999. Among the ruins stand several mausolea of revered figures, small domed buildings that have drawn pilgrims for centuries and still do today.
Read the complete Mausolea of Imam Bakr and Shafi write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Mausolea of Imam Bakr and Shafi comes up 36 km in. Next is Greater and Lesser Nagym Kalas.
Two ruined buildings stand a short distance apart on the plain of Merv, and both are called Kyz Kala, the maidens' fort. The larger one is a vast square block of mud brick with walls that are corrugated, with a row of vertical flutes that give the surface a strange rhythmic texture, and the smaller one is a similar building on a smaller scale. They are among the best-preserved structures from the early Islamic period at Merv, probably dating from the sixth or seventh century or thereabouts, though historians still discuss their exact date and purpose.
Read the complete Greater and Lesser Nagym Kalas write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
73 km in you reach Greater and Lesser Nagym Kalas. Next is 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Takhirbaj Tepe, about halfway. Next is back through Greater and Lesser Nagym Kalas.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Greater and Lesser Nagym Kalas write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Greater and Lesser Nagym Kalas sits at 145 km, about halfway. Next is back through Mausolea of Imam Bakr and Shafi.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Mausolea of Imam Bakr and Shafi write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Mausolea of Imam Bakr and Shafi comes up 182 km in. Next is Mausoleum of Imam Qasim.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Mausoleum of Imam Qasim write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Mausoleum of Imam Qasim closes the day.
Mausoleum of Imam Qasim → Mausolea of Imam Bakr and Shafi is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Mausolea of Imam Bakr and Shafi → Greater and Lesser Nagym Kalas is 53 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Greater and Lesser Nagym Kalas → Takhirbaj Tepe is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Takhirbaj Tepe → back through Greater and Lesser Nagym Kalas is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Greater and Lesser Nagym Kalas → back through Mausolea of Imam Bakr and Shafi is 53 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Mausolea of Imam Bakr and Shafi → Mausoleum of Imam Qasim is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.