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.
From Old City it runs 502 km to Old City; allow about 8 h 17 of riding. On the way it passes Hebron/Al-Khalil Old Town, Masada, Mamshit and Shivta. It crosses from Palestinian Territories into Israel - carry ID and check the toll rules. The line favours views over speed.
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 41 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
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.
Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls 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 39 km into the recorded legs. Next is Masada.
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.
about 114 km into the recorded legs you reach Masada. Next is Mamshit.
Mamshit sits on a low spur above a dry riverbed in the northern Negev, a few kilometres east of Dimona, and from a distance it looks like nothing more than a heap of pale stones. Up close it becomes a town: streets, courtyards, staircases, arches, two Byzantine churches with mosaic floors and a set of large houses built by people who knew how to live comfortably in a hard place. This was Mampsis, a Nabataean settlement on the caravan routes that carried incense and spices from Arabia across the desert to the Mediterranean ports, and it shares a World Heritage inscription with Avdat, Haluza and Shivta as one of the desert cities of the Incense Route.
Read the complete Mamshit write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Mamshit, about halfway. Next is Shivta.
There is no water at Shivta, and yet a town of some size thrived here, in the middle of the Negev desert, for several centuries. Its people collected every drop of rain that fell on the surrounding hills and channelled it into cisterns, and they grew grapes, wheat and olives in the dry valleys around. Shivta began as a Nabataean settlement on the trade routes between Arabia and the Mediterranean, and it reached its peak in the Byzantine period, when it had three churches, houses, wine presses and streets of stone. It is part of the Incense Route listed by UNESCO, with the desert cities of Avdat, Haluza and Mamshit.
Read the complete Shivta write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Shivta sits at 203 km, about halfway. Next is back through Mamshit.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Mamshit write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Mamshit comes up about 322 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through 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.
about 388 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Masada. 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 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.
The route ends here after 502 km.
Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls → Hebron/Al-Khalil Old Town is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hebron/Al-Khalil Old Town → Masada is 75 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Masada → Mamshit is 66 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Mamshit → Shivta is 71 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Shivta → back through Mamshit is 71 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Mamshit → back through Masada is 66 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Masada → back through Hebron/Al-Khalil Old Town is 75 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through 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.