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.
358 km from Old City to Old City, about 5 h 37 of riding. It goes by way of Ancient Jericho/Tell es-Sultan, As-Salt - The Place of Tolerance and Urban, Um er-Rasas and back through As-Salt - The Place of Tolerance and Urban. It crosses from Palestinian Territories into Jordan - carry ID and check the toll rules. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
97 km on Jordan Kings Highway.
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 Ancient Jericho/Tell es-Sultan.
Jericho is one of the oldest continuously inhabited towns on earth, and at Tell es-Sultan, on its northern edge, archaeologists have dug down through layers of settlement more than ten thousand years old. Among the finds is a great stone tower, built in the Neolithic, around eleven thousand years ago, long before writing, metal or the wheel, which is often called the oldest such tower in the world. The tell, with its trenches and mud brick walls, was listed as a World Heritage Site in 2023.
Read the complete Ancient Jericho/Tell es-Sultan write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ancient Jericho/Tell es-Sultan comes up about 35 km into the recorded legs. Next is As-Salt - The Place of Tolerance and Urban.
As-Salt climbs three steep hills in the Balqa highlands north-west of Amman, a town of honey-coloured limestone houses with arched windows, terraced streets and long staircases. In the late Ottoman period, from the 1860s to the 1920s, it was the most important town in the region east of the Jordan, a trading hub where merchants from Nablus, Damascus and Beirut settled and built grand houses in a mix of local and European styles. Muslims and Christians lived side by side, sharing guesthouses and charitable traditions, and the town was inscribed on the UNESCO list in 2021 as As-Salt, the Place of Tolerance and Urban Hospitality.
Read the complete As-Salt - The Place of Tolerance and Urban write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 80 km into the recorded legs you reach As-Salt - The Place of Tolerance and Urban. Next is Um er-Rasas.
The most surprising thing at Umm ar-Rasas is a tower. It stands alone in the fields about a kilometre north of the old town, a tall square column of stone, about fifteen metres high, with no door and a small chamber at the top, and it was built for a stylite, one of those early Christian ascetics who lived on top of pillars to be closer to heaven and further from the world. Stylites became famous in Syria in the fifth century, and this tower, which dates from the Byzantine period, is one of very few that survive in the region, and it may have been used as late as the ninth century. A monk lived in that little room, and pilgrims came to see him.
Read the complete Um er-Rasas write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Um er-Rasas, about halfway. Next is back through As-Salt - The Place of Tolerance and Urban.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete As-Salt - The Place of Tolerance and Urban write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through As-Salt - The Place of Tolerance and Urban sits at 213 km, about halfway. Next is back through Ancient Jericho/Tell es-Sultan.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ancient Jericho/Tell es-Sultan write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Ancient Jericho/Tell es-Sultan comes up about 322 km into the recorded legs. 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.
Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls closes the day.
Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls → Ancient Jericho/Tell es-Sultan is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ancient Jericho/Tell es-Sultan → As-Salt - The Place of Tolerance and Urban is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
As-Salt - The Place of Tolerance and Urban → Um er-Rasas is 97 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Um er-Rasas → back through As-Salt - The Place of Tolerance and Urban is 100 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through As-Salt - The Place of Tolerance and Urban → back through Ancient Jericho/Tell es-Sultan is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Ancient Jericho/Tell es-Sultan → Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.