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.
A 282 km round trip from Samarkand - roughly 4 h 15 in the saddle. The stops in between: Town of Ancient Penjikent, Gardani Khisor Settlement and back through Town of Ancient Penjikent. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,900 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Uzbekistan into Tajikistan - carry ID and check the toll rules. The line favours views over speed.
Samarkand is one of those cities that leaves you fumbling for comparisons. It sits in the Zeravshan valley in eastern Uzbekistan, with the snow-capped Turkestan range on the horizon, and for the last two thousand years or so it has been a crossroads of peoples. The part visited today is largely Timur's, from the late fourteenth century, when the conqueror brought in craftsmen from Persia, India, Syria and the Caucasus to make his capital the most splendid place in the world. Under his grandson Ulugh Beg the city also became a centre of science.
Read the complete Samarkand - Crossroad of Cultures write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Samarkand - Crossroad of Cultures is where the day begins. Next is Town of Ancient Penjikent.
On a dusty loess terrace just outside modern Panjakent, a few low mud ridges and pits are all that remain of one of the richest cities on the Silk Road. Fourteen centuries ago this was a Sogdian town of merchants, with two-storey houses, temples and walls covered in paintings of feasts, heroes and gods. The best frescoes went to the Hermitage in St Petersburg and to the Rudaki museum in town, so bring some imagination with you, but standing among the excavated streets with the Zeravshan glittering below, the scale of the place still lands.
Read the complete Town of Ancient Penjikent write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Town of Ancient Penjikent comes up about 64 km into the recorded legs. Next is Gardani Khisor Settlement.
Khisor, or Hissar, is a word that turns up across Central Asia for a fortress, and Gardani Khisor is one of those lonely fortress-hills of the upper Zeravshan valley in Tajikistan. It stands a few kilometres from the river, west of the little town of Ayní, in country where the plain narrows and the Fan Mountains start to rear up to the south. I can tell you the setting better than the ruin, because there is not much published on the site and what stands is mostly broken walls and mounds, but the pattern is familiar. The Sogdians and their successors put small forts on rocky knolls to watch the river road and the side valleys, and the villagers below kept orchards and flocks within shouting distance of safety.
Read the complete Gardani Khisor Settlement write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 140 km into the recorded legs you reach Gardani Khisor Settlement. Next is back through Town of Ancient Penjikent.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Town of Ancient Penjikent write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Town of Ancient Penjikent, late in the day. Next is Samarkand - Crossroad of Cultures.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Samarkand - Crossroad of Cultures write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Samarkand - Crossroad of Cultures. That is the ride.
Samarkand - Crossroad of Cultures → Town of Ancient Penjikent is 64 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Town of Ancient Penjikent → Gardani Khisor Settlement is 76 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Gardani Khisor Settlement → back through Town of Ancient Penjikent is 79 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Town of Ancient Penjikent → Samarkand - Crossroad of Cultures is 63 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.