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: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
406 km from Qiryat Shemona to Qiryat Shemona, about 7 h of riding. On the way it passes Tel Hazor, Mansion of Mazra‘ih, Necropolis of Bet She’arim: A Landmark of and Sebastia. It crosses Lebanon, Israel and Palestinian Territories - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 37 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
It is a region of terraced slopes, olive groves, tobacco patches and stone villages, with the Hula valley falling away to the east and the long wall of Mount Hermon hanging over everything on a clear day. The nearest settlements are Ain Ebel on the Lebanese side and Qiryat Shemona and Metulla on the Israeli side, which tells you most of what you need to know about the place: this is a frontier, and the frontier shapes every road.
Read the complete Mount Amel Castles write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Mount Amel Castles is where the day begins. Next is Tel Hazor.
If you stand on the top of Tel Hazor on a clear day, the view is of the Hula valley to the north and the hills of Upper Galilee to the west, with the snow-capped hump of Mount Hermon, in winter, sitting at the far end. The tel itself is a vast, flat-topped mound, the largest ancient site in Israel's north, rising out of the fields near Kibbutz Ayelet HaShahar. It is what archaeologists call a tel, a hill made of the layers of cities built one on top of another over thousands of years.
Read the complete Tel Hazor write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Tel Hazor comes up about 37 km into the recorded legs. Next is Mansion of Mazra‘ih.
The Baháʼí faith has two of its holiest places in Israel, and the Mansion of Mazra'ih is the quieter of them. It stands in the farmland north of Acre, near the coast, a large Ottoman-era house surrounded by gardens and orange trees. Bahá'u'lláh, the founder of the religion, spent years as a prisoner in the fortress city of Acre, and when his confinement was relaxed in 1877 he moved here, living in the mansion for a couple of years before settling at nearby Bahjí, where he died in 1892.
Read the complete Mansion of Mazra‘ih write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 96 km into the recorded legs you reach Mansion of Mazra‘ih. Next is Necropolis of Bet She’arim: A Landmark of.
In the second century AD, after the failed revolts against Rome, the centre of Jewish life moved to Galilee, and the Sanhedrin, the supreme rabbinical council, settled for a time at Bet She'arim, on a hill at the western edge of the Jezreel valley. Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi, the patriarch who compiled the Mishnah, the first great codification of Jewish law, lived here, and when he was buried in the necropolis, Jews from all over the diaspora wanted to be buried near him. The result is a vast network of catacombs carved into the soft limestone, listed by UNESCO in 2015.
Read the complete Necropolis of Bet She’arim: A Landmark of write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Necropolis of Bet She’arim: A Landmark of, about halfway. Next is Sebastia.
Sebastia, Sabastiya in Arabic, is a Palestinian village on a hill north-west of Nablus, in the northern West Bank, surrounded by olive groves and terraced hillsides. It stands on the site of Samaria, the capital of the northern Kingdom of Israel in the ninth and eighth centuries BC, later rebuilt by Herod the Great, who named it Sebaste in honour of the Emperor Augustus. The ruins on the hilltop above the village span a thousand years of history.
Read the complete Sebastia write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sebastia sits at 203 km, about halfway. Next is back through Necropolis of Bet She’arim: A Landmark of.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Necropolis of Bet She’arim: A Landmark of write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Necropolis of Bet She’arim: A Landmark of comes up about 267 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Mansion of Mazra‘ih.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Mansion of Mazra‘ih write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 310 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Mansion of Mazra‘ih. Next is back through Tel Hazor.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Tel Hazor write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Tel Hazor, late in the day. Next is Mount Amel Castles.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Mount Amel Castles write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 406 km.
Mount Amel Castles → Tel Hazor is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Tel Hazor → Mansion of Mazra‘ih is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Mansion of Mazra‘ih → Necropolis of Bet She’arim: A Landmark of is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Necropolis of Bet She’arim: A Landmark of → Sebastia is 64 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sebastia → back through Necropolis of Bet She’arim: A Landmark of is 64 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Necropolis of Bet She’arim: A Landmark of → back through Mansion of Mazra‘ih is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Mansion of Mazra‘ih → back through Tel Hazor is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Tel Hazor → Mount Amel Castles is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.