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.
A 145 km round trip from Samarkand - roughly 2 h 16 in the saddle. The stops in between: Jartepa II Temple, Sanjarshakh Settlement and back through Jartepa II Temple. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,300 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Uzbekistan into Tajikistan - carry ID and check the toll rules. The line favours views over speed.
Samarkand is one of those names that sounds invented, and then you arrive and find it is a real city with real traffic. It sits in the fertile valley of the Zeravshan river, with the Pamir-Alay foothills to the south and the Kyzylkum desert to the west, and it has been a crossroads since before Alexander the Great marched through in 329 BC. The old settlement of Afrasiab, on a plateau at the edge of town, was razed by Genghis Khan's army in 1220. Timur, who made the city his capital in the 1370s, rebuilt it on a far grander scale, filling it with the craftsmen, scholars and stonemasons he dragged back from every conquest.
Read the complete Medieval Timurid and European Cities write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Medieval Timurid and European Cities is where the day begins. Next is Jartepa II Temple.
The Zarafshan valley is the green artery of central Uzbekistan, carrying meltwater from the mountains of Tajikistan west past Samarkand and Bukhara into the desert. South of Samarkand, the land rises into the foothills of the Zarafshan range, and it is here, near Urgut and close to the Tajik border, that the Jartepa site lies, with remains of a temple from the Sogdian era.
Read the complete Jartepa II Temple write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Jartepa II Temple comes up about 36 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 72 km into the recorded legs you reach Sanjarshakh Settlement. Next is back through Jartepa II Temple.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Jartepa II Temple write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Jartepa II Temple, late in the day. Next is Medieval Timurid and European Cities.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Medieval Timurid and European Cities write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Medieval Timurid and European Cities. That is the ride.
Medieval Timurid and European Cities → Jartepa II Temple is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Jartepa II Temple → Sanjarshakh Settlement is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sanjarshakh Settlement → back through Jartepa II Temple is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Jartepa II Temple → Medieval Timurid and European Cities is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.