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 214 km round trip from Sīlat az̧ Z̧ahr - roughly 4 h 28 in the saddle. It goes by way of Tel Megiddo, Necropolis of Bet She’arim: A Landmark of, Biblical Tels - Megiddo and back through Biblical Tels - Megiddo. It crosses from Palestinian Territories into Israel - carry ID and check the toll rules.
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 is where the day begins. Next is Tel Megiddo.
From the top of Tel Megiddo, the whole of the Jezreel Valley spreads out below you, a green and gold checkerboard of fields stretching towards Mount Tabor and the hills of Galilee. You can see at once why so many armies fought here. The mound guarded the narrow pass where the ancient coastal road, the Via Maris, crossed from the Mediterranean plain into the valley, and anyone who held it controlled one of the great trade and military routes of the ancient world.
Read the complete Tel Megiddo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Tel Megiddo comes up about 51 km into the recorded legs. Next is Necropolis of Bet She’arim: A Landmark of.
In the second century AD, after the failed revolts against Rome, the centre of Jewish life moved to Galilee, and the Sanhedrin, the supreme rabbinical council, settled for a time at Bet She'arim, on a hill at the western edge of the Jezreel valley. Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi, the patriarch who compiled the Mishnah, the first great codification of Jewish law, lived here, and when he was buried in the necropolis, Jews from all over the diaspora wanted to be buried near him. The result is a vast network of catacombs carved into the soft limestone, listed by UNESCO in 2015.
Read the complete Necropolis of Bet She’arim: A Landmark of write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 69 km into the recorded legs you reach Necropolis of Bet She’arim: A Landmark of. 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.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Necropolis of Bet She’arim: A Landmark of write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Necropolis of Bet She’arim: A Landmark of sits at 100 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 125 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Necropolis of Bet She’arim: A Landmark of.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Necropolis of Bet She’arim: A Landmark of write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 145 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Necropolis of Bet She’arim: A Landmark of. Next is back through Tel Megiddo.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Tel Megiddo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Tel Megiddo, late in the day. Next is Sebastia.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sebastia write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 214 km.
Sebastia → Tel Megiddo is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Tel Megiddo → Necropolis of Bet She’arim: A Landmark of is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Necropolis of Bet She’arim: A Landmark of → Biblical Tels - Megiddo is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Biblical Tels - Megiddo → Necropolis of Bet She’arim: A Landmark of is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Necropolis of Bet She’arim: A Landmark of → back through Biblical Tels - Megiddo is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Biblical Tels - Megiddo → back through Necropolis of Bet She’arim: A Landmark of is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Necropolis of Bet She’arim: A Landmark of → back through Tel Megiddo is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Tel Megiddo → Sebastia is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.