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.
A 417 km round trip from En Nâqoûra - roughly 7 h 11 in the saddle. The stops in between: Qalaat Chakra, Persian Quarter, Biblical Tels - Megiddo 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.
Before anything else: this is one of the most sensitive places on any of these routes. Qalaat Chama, or Shamaa castle, stands on a hilltop in southern Lebanon, a few kilometres north of the border with Israel and inland from Naqoura, in an area that has seen repeated conflict, including heavy fighting in recent years, and that many governments advise against visiting under any circumstances. Damage to historic sites in the area has been reported, and conditions may have changed. Do not go without checking current official travel advice, and if in doubt, do not go at all.
Read the complete Qalaat Chama’ write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Qalaat Chama’ is where the day begins. Next is Qalaat Chakra.
Before anything else, the honest part: this place lies in southern Lebanon, a few kilometres from the border with Israel, in an area that has seen repeated war, most recently in 2024, and that remains militarised and unpredictable. The listed neighbours on the route sheet, from Kiryat Shmona to Tyre, sit on opposite sides of a frontier that is closed to ordinary travel. Check your government's travel advice and local conditions very carefully before even thinking about a visit, and do not try to approach from the Israeli side.
Read the complete Qalaat Chakra write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Qalaat Chakra comes up about 35 km into the recorded legs. Next is Persian Quarter.
Haifa climbs the northern slope of Mount Carmel in tiers, and halfway up, a golden dome catches the light above a staircase of gardens that tumbles all the way down to the old German Colony and the port. This is the Bahá'í World Centre, and the dome crowns the Shrine of the Báb, the founder figure of the Bahá'í faith, whose remains were brought here from Persia and interred on the mountainside. The nineteen terraces around it, with clipped lawns, gravel paths, cypresses and fountains, are among the most meticulously kept gardens anywhere, and together with the shrine of Bahá'u'lláh near Acre across the bay they form a UNESCO World Heritage site. The Persian connection runs through everything here, from the faith's origins in nineteenth-century Iran to the formal geometry of the planting.
Read the complete Persian Quarter write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 119 km into the recorded legs you reach Persian Quarter. Next is Biblical Tels - Megiddo.
Megiddo is the hill that gave the world the word Armageddon, which comes from Har Megiddo, the mount of Megiddo, and it sits where the Jezreel valley opens to the coast road, a little north of the Wadi Ara pass. The tell is a long mound made of some twenty layers of ruined cities piled on top of each other, and from its top the whole green plain stretches north to the hills of Nazareth. Today it is inscribed on the World Heritage list together with two other biblical mounds.
Read the complete Biblical Tels - Megiddo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Biblical Tels - Megiddo, 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 209 km, about halfway. Next is back through Biblical Tels - Megiddo.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Biblical Tels - Megiddo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Biblical Tels - Megiddo comes up about 256 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Persian Quarter.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Persian Quarter write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 297 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Persian Quarter. Next is back through Qalaat Chakra.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Qalaat Chakra write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Qalaat Chakra, late in the day. Next is Qalaat Chama’.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Qalaat Chama’ write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 417 km.
Qalaat Chama’ → Qalaat Chakra is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Qalaat Chakra → Persian Quarter is 84 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Persian Quarter → Biblical Tels - Megiddo is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Biblical Tels - Megiddo → Sebastia is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sebastia → back through Biblical Tels - Megiddo is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Biblical Tels - Megiddo → back through Persian Quarter is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Persian Quarter → back through Qalaat Chakra is 84 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Qalaat Chakra → Qalaat Chama’ is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.