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.
From Madīnat ‘Īsá it runs 912 km to Madīnat ‘Īsá; allow about 16 h 35 of riding. The stops in between: Al Zubarah Archaeological Site and back through Al Zubarah Archaeological Site. It crosses from Bahrain into Qatar - carry ID and check the toll rules. The line favours views over speed.
Nobody knows who was buried in Royal Mound 16, and that is one of the nicest things about it. The big tombs at A'ali have been called royal for decades, because of their size and their position on the highest ground, but there is no inscription, no king's name, nothing that settles the matter. The tombs were looted long ago, probably within a few centuries of their construction, and what the robbers did not carry off was scattered by time. What remains is architecture: a vast stack of limestone, a chamber, a ramp and a silence.
Read the complete Royal Mound 16 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Royal Mound 16 is where the day begins. Next is Al Zubarah Archaeological Site.
Out on the north-west coast of Qatar, where the desert slides into a shallow turquoise sea, stand the low ruins of Al Zubarah, once one of the busiest pearling and trading towns in the Gulf. In the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the town thrived on pearls dived from the oyster beds offshore, traded on to India, Persia and beyond. Then it declined, was abandoned in the early twentieth century, and the sand covered it. Archaeologists have since uncovered streets, houses, a souk, mosques and a long town wall running in an arc around the old harbour. UNESCO inscribed the site in 2013.
Read the complete Al Zubarah Archaeological Site write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Al Zubarah Archaeological Site comes up about 459 km into the recorded legs. Next is Hayr Bū-l-Thāmah.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Al Zubarah Archaeological Site write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Al Zubarah Archaeological Site, late in the day. Next is Royal Mound 16.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Royal Mound 16 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Royal Mound 16. That is the ride.
Royal Mound 16 → Al Zubarah Archaeological Site is 459 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Al Zubarah Archaeological Site → back through Al Zubarah Archaeological Site is 0 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Al Zubarah Archaeological Site → Royal Mound 16 is 459 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.