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 Ágios Pávlos it runs 431 km to Ágios Pávlos; allow about 6 h 56 of riding. The stops in between: Bronze Age settlement and Cemetery of Tumu, Archaeological site of Dion, Archaeological Site of Aigai and back through Archaeological site of Dion. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Thessaloniki has the odd distinction of being a Roman city, a Byzantine city, an Ottoman city and a Greek city, all at once, and the churches that UNESCO listed in 1988 tell the earliest part of the story. The Paleochristian and Byzantine monuments include the Rotunda, a huge round brick building put up around AD 300 as a mausoleum for the emperor Galerius, and later converted into a church. Its walls are about six metres thick, and it stands beside the remains of Galerius's palace and triumphal arch. A minaret from the Ottoman period still rises beside it.
Read the complete Paleochristian and Byzantine Monuments of write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Paleochristian and Byzantine Monuments of is where the day begins. Next is Bronze Age settlement and Cemetery of Tumu.
Vergina is a small village at the foot of the Pierian mountains in northern Greece, and for most of history nobody outside the region knew its name. That changed in 1977, when the archaeologist Manolis Andronikos opened a great burial mound here and found royal tombs with astonishing grave goods. The site is ancient Aigai, the first capital of the Macedonian kingdom, and one of the tombs is widely attributed to Philip II, father of Alexander the Great. The prehistoric settlement and the large cemetery of burial mounds nearby show that people had been living and burying their dead here for a very long time before the Macedonian kings.
Read the complete Bronze Age settlement and Cemetery of Tumu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bronze Age settlement and Cemetery of Tumu comes up about 69 km into the recorded legs. Next is Archaeological site of Dion.
Mount Olympus rises straight out of the plain behind Dion, and on a clear morning its snow-streaked summit seems close enough to touch. The ancient Macedonians built their most sacred city here, at the foot of the home of the gods, and the kings came to sacrifice to Zeus before going to war. Philip II celebrated victories here, and Alexander the Great is said to have held a great festival at Dion before setting out to conquer Persia. Walking among the ruins, you can see why they chose the place: water bubbles up everywhere, the plain is fertile, and the mountain looms like a living presence.
Read the complete Archaeological site of Dion write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 146 km into the recorded legs you reach Archaeological site of Dion. Next is Archaeological Site of Aigai.
In 1977 the Greek archaeologist Manolis Andronikos lifted the stone slab of a vaulted tomb under a huge mound near the village of Vergina and found a gold casket holding the cremated bones of a man in his forties, with a golden wreath beside them. Most scholars now accept that it was Philip II of Macedon, the father of Alexander the Great, murdered in the theatre of the old capital in 336 BC. The mound, the Great Tumulus, is the centrepiece of Aigai, the first capital of Macedon, and today the royal tombs are displayed underground in a museum built inside the tumulus itself, in a half-light that makes the gold glow.
Read the complete Archaeological Site of Aigai write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Archaeological Site of Aigai, about halfway. Next is back through Archaeological site of Dion.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Archaeological site of Dion write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Archaeological site of Dion sits at 239 km, about halfway. Next is back through Bronze Age settlement and Cemetery of Tumu.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Bronze Age settlement and Cemetery of Tumu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Bronze Age settlement and Cemetery of Tumu comes up about 363 km into the recorded legs. Next is Paleochristian and Byzantine Monuments of.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Paleochristian and Byzantine Monuments of write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Paleochristian and Byzantine Monuments of closes the day.
Paleochristian and Byzantine Monuments of → Bronze Age settlement and Cemetery of Tumu is 69 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Bronze Age settlement and Cemetery of Tumu → Archaeological site of Dion is 77 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Archaeological site of Dion → Archaeological Site of Aigai is 70 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Archaeological Site of Aigai → back through Archaeological site of Dion is 76 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Archaeological site of Dion → back through Bronze Age settlement and Cemetery of Tumu is 71 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Bronze Age settlement and Cemetery of Tumu → Paleochristian and Byzantine Monuments of is 69 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.