Why this ride
382 km from Konimex to Konimex, about 7 h 22 of riding. It goes by way of Chasma-i Ayub Khazira, Vardanze Settlement, Historic Centre of Bukhara and Varakhsha Settlement. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Rabati Malik Sardoba and Varakhsha Settlement starting at Navoiy
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 382 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 7 h 22
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Rabati Malik Sardoba
Halfway between Samarkand and Bukhara, the old caravan road crosses a stretch of steppe that is flat, dry and almost empty, and in the eleventh century someone decided that a traveller crossing it deserved a proper stopping place. Rabati Malik, the Rabat of the King, was built in the 1070s by a Karakhanid ruler named Shams al-Mulk Nasr, on one of the main branches of the Silk Road. The caravanserai itself is now mostly collapsed, and what remains is a tall brick entrance portal, ornamented with carved terracotta, standing alone in the plain like the front of a theatre set.
Read the complete Rabati Malik Sardoba write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Rabati Malik Sardoba is where the day begins. Next is Chasma-i Ayub Khazira.
2. Chasma-i Ayub Khazira
North of Bukhara, the green irrigated oasis of the Zarafshan river spreads out in a patchwork of cotton fields, orchards, mulberry trees and villages, and the point named Chasma-i Ayub Khazira lies in this landscape, near the village of Khazara, between Vobkent and Gijduvon. Chashma-i Ayub, the spring of Job, is a name given to several holy springs in Central Asia, linked to the legend that the prophet Job struck the ground with his staff and water gushed forth in a time of drought. The most famous is in Bukhara itself, a mausoleum over a spring, and this site near Khazara may be another shrine of the same tradition, listed as part of the Silk Roads corridor of the Zarafshan valley.
Read the complete Chasma-i Ayub Khazira write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Chasma-i Ayub Khazira comes up about 55 km into the recorded legs. Next is Vardanze Settlement.
3. Vardanze Settlement
North of Bukhara the irrigated land eventually runs into the sand, and on that edge lies Vardanze, the ruins of an ancient city that was once the capital of a local principality in the Bukhara oasis. Its mound of collapsed mud-brick walls and citadel rises above the fields near Shofirkon, and archaeologists have traced its history back more than two thousand years. It flourished as a trading post on the Silk Road and later declined, partly because the desert advanced and the water supply failed, and its ruins are part of the Zarafshan-Karakum corridor listed by UNESCO in 2023.
Read the complete Vardanze Settlement write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 94 km into the recorded legs you reach Vardanze Settlement. Next is Historic Centre of Bukhara.
4. Historic Centre of Bukhara
Bukhara is a city that feels like a lived-in museum. For more than two thousand years it has been a trading town on the routes across Central Asia, and in the ninth and tenth centuries, under the Samanid dynasty, it was one of the great centres of Islamic learning, home to scholars such as Ibn Sina, known in the West as Avicenna. Genghis Khan sacked it in 1220, but the Kalyan Minaret, built in 1127, survived, and legend says even the conqueror was impressed. Today the old city is a remarkable ensemble of mosques, madrasas, caravanserais and domed bazaars, and it entered the World Heritage list in 1993.
Read the complete Historic Centre of Bukhara write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Historic Centre of Bukhara, about halfway. Next is Varakhsha Settlement.
5. Varakhsha Settlement
Thirty kilometres or so west of Bukhara, beyond the last irrigated fields, the land turns to sand and salt crust at the edge of the Kyzylkum desert, and here a low mound of eroded mud brick rises from the flat ground. This is Varakhsha, once a flourishing town and the residence of the Bukhar Khudats, the pre-Islamic rulers of the Bukhara oasis. It thrived in the early medieval centuries, when the oasis extended further than it does today, and was abandoned around the eleventh century, probably as irrigation failed and the desert advanced.
Read the complete Varakhsha Settlement write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Varakhsha Settlement sits at 200 km, about halfway. Next is back through Historic Centre of Bukhara.
6. back through Historic Centre of Bukhara
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Historic Centre of Bukhara write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Historic Centre of Bukhara comes up about 239 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Vardanze Settlement.
7. back through Vardanze Settlement
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Vardanze Settlement write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 291 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Vardanze Settlement. Next is back through Chasma-i Ayub Khazira.
8. back through Chasma-i Ayub Khazira
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Chasma-i Ayub Khazira write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Chasma-i Ayub Khazira, late in the day. Next is Rabati Malik Sardoba.
9. Rabati Malik Sardoba
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Rabati Malik Sardoba write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 382 km.
Leg by leg
Rabati Malik Sardoba to Chasma-i Ayub Khazira
Rabati Malik Sardoba → Chasma-i Ayub Khazira is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Chasma-i Ayub Khazira to Vardanze Settlement
Chasma-i Ayub Khazira → Vardanze Settlement is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Vardanze Settlement to Historic Centre of Bukhara
Vardanze Settlement → Historic Centre of Bukhara is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Historic Centre of Bukhara to Varakhsha Settlement
Historic Centre of Bukhara → Varakhsha Settlement is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Varakhsha Settlement to back through Historic Centre of Bukhara
Varakhsha Settlement → back through Historic Centre of Bukhara is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Historic Centre of Bukhara to back through Vardanze Settlement
back through Historic Centre of Bukhara → back through Vardanze Settlement is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Vardanze Settlement to back through Chasma-i Ayub Khazira
back through Vardanze Settlement → back through Chasma-i Ayub Khazira is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Chasma-i Ayub Khazira to Rabati Malik Sardoba
back through Chasma-i Ayub Khazira → Rabati Malik Sardoba is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.