Why this ride
A 345 km round trip from Karmana Shahri - roughly 7 h 08 in the saddle. The stops in between: Deggaron Mosque, Chasma-i Ayub Khazira, Vardanze Settlement and Historic Centre of Bukhara. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Mir Sayid Bakhrom Mausoleum and Historic Centre of Bukhara
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 345 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 7 h 08
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Mir Sayid Bakhrom Mausoleum
Navoi is a strange and rather brilliant city. It does not appear on any old caravan map, because it was founded in 1958 in the middle of the Kyzylkum desert, to house the workers of the gold and uranium industries and to give the Soviet planners a clean slate. It was named after Alisher Navoi, the fifteenth-century poet who wrote in Chagatai Turkic and who has become the national literary hero. Wide avenues, tidy parks and rows of apartment blocks give it the air of a model town, and in the heat of the afternoon it is remarkably quiet.
Read the complete Mir Sayid Bakhrom Mausoleum write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Mir Sayid Bakhrom Mausoleum is where the day begins. Next is Deggaron Mosque.
2. Deggaron Mosque
In the village of Hazara, in the Zarafshan valley between Bukhara and Samarkand, stands one of the oldest mosques in Central Asia. The Deggaron mosque dates from the eleventh century, and from the outside it looks almost humble: a square, squat brick building with a cluster of low domes. Inside, it is a revelation, with massive brick columns supporting a forest of small domes and arches, the brickwork laid in patterns that play with light and shadow. It is a rare survivor of the pre-Mongol architecture of the region, and it forms part of the Silk Roads listing for the Zarafshan-Karakum corridor, inscribed by UNESCO in 2023.
Read the complete Deggaron Mosque write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Deggaron Mosque comes up about 34 km into the recorded legs. Next is Chasma-i Ayub Khazira.
3. Chasma-i Ayub Khazira
North of Bukhara, the green irrigated oasis of the Zarafshan river spreads out in a patchwork of cotton fields, orchards, mulberry trees and villages, and the point named Chasma-i Ayub Khazira lies in this landscape, near the village of Khazara, between Vobkent and Gijduvon. Chashma-i Ayub, the spring of Job, is a name given to several holy springs in Central Asia, linked to the legend that the prophet Job struck the ground with his staff and water gushed forth in a time of drought. The most famous is in Bukhara itself, a mausoleum over a spring, and this site near Khazara may be another shrine of the same tradition, listed as part of the Silk Roads corridor of the Zarafshan valley.
Read the complete Chasma-i Ayub Khazira write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 81 km into the recorded legs you reach Chasma-i Ayub Khazira. Next is Vardanze Settlement.
4. Vardanze Settlement
North of Bukhara the irrigated land eventually runs into the sand, and on that edge lies Vardanze, the ruins of an ancient city that was once the capital of a local principality in the Bukhara oasis. Its mound of collapsed mud-brick walls and citadel rises above the fields near Shofirkon, and archaeologists have traced its history back more than two thousand years. It flourished as a trading post on the Silk Road and later declined, partly because the desert advanced and the water supply failed, and its ruins are part of the Zarafshan-Karakum corridor listed by UNESCO in 2023.
Read the complete Vardanze Settlement write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Vardanze Settlement, about halfway. Next is Historic Centre of Bukhara.
5. Historic Centre of Bukhara
Bukhara is a city that feels like a lived-in museum. For more than two thousand years it has been a trading town on the routes across Central Asia, and in the ninth and tenth centuries, under the Samanid dynasty, it was one of the great centres of Islamic learning, home to scholars such as Ibn Sina, known in the West as Avicenna. Genghis Khan sacked it in 1220, but the Kalyan Minaret, built in 1127, survived, and legend says even the conqueror was impressed. Today the old city is a remarkable ensemble of mosques, madrasas, caravanserais and domed bazaars, and it entered the World Heritage list in 1993.
Read the complete Historic Centre of Bukhara write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Historic Centre of Bukhara sits at 186 km, about halfway. Next is back through Vardanze Settlement.
6. back through Vardanze Settlement
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Vardanze Settlement write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Vardanze Settlement comes up about 223 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Chasma-i Ayub Khazira.
7. back through Chasma-i Ayub Khazira
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Chasma-i Ayub Khazira write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 262 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Chasma-i Ayub Khazira. Next is back through Deggaron Mosque.
8. back through Deggaron Mosque
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Deggaron Mosque write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Deggaron Mosque, late in the day. Next is Mir Sayid Bakhrom Mausoleum.
9. Mir Sayid Bakhrom Mausoleum
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Mir Sayid Bakhrom Mausoleum write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 345 km.
Leg by leg
Mir Sayid Bakhrom Mausoleum to Deggaron Mosque
Mir Sayid Bakhrom Mausoleum → Deggaron Mosque is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Deggaron Mosque to Chasma-i Ayub Khazira
Deggaron Mosque → Chasma-i Ayub Khazira is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Chasma-i Ayub Khazira to Vardanze Settlement
Chasma-i Ayub Khazira → Vardanze Settlement is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Vardanze Settlement to Historic Centre of Bukhara
Vardanze Settlement → Historic Centre of Bukhara is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Historic Centre of Bukhara to back through Vardanze Settlement
Historic Centre of Bukhara → back through Vardanze Settlement is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Vardanze Settlement to back through Chasma-i Ayub Khazira
back through Vardanze Settlement → back through Chasma-i Ayub Khazira is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Chasma-i Ayub Khazira to back through Deggaron Mosque
back through Chasma-i Ayub Khazira → back through Deggaron Mosque is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Deggaron Mosque to Mir Sayid Bakhrom Mausoleum
back through Deggaron Mosque → Mir Sayid Bakhrom Mausoleum is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.