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.
305 km from Moskva to Moskva, about 5 h 10 of riding. On the way it passes Zoli Zard, Ajinatepa Buddhist monastery and back through Zoli Zard. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,150 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Down in the far south of Tajikistan, in Khatlon province, the land flattens into the wide floodplain of the Panj, the river that forms the border with Afghanistan. The site named Shahristoni Zoli Zar lies in this country, some eighteen kilometres from Farkhor, and it is one of many ancient settlement mounds scattered across the region. Southern Tajikistan was part of ancient Bactria, later the heartland of the Kushan empire, and the fields here have yielded Buddhist and early Islamic remains. A shahriston, in the old local sense, was the inner walled town, and the name suggests that this mound once held a proper urban core.
Read the complete Shahristoni Zoli Zar write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Shahristoni Zoli Zar is where the day begins. Next is Zoli Zard.
Danghara lies in the south of Tajikistan, in the province of Khatlon, on the broad, hot plain between the Hissar mountains and the Panj river, which forms the border with Afghanistan. The point called Zoli Zard sits just outside the town, and the name, which means yellow water in Persian, probably refers to a stream or spring in the loess hills. The region is full of such sites, and many of them belong to the long Buddhist, Zoroastrian and later Islamic history of Bactria.
Read the complete Zoli Zard write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Zoli Zard comes up about 70 km into the recorded legs. Next is Ajinatepa Buddhist monastery.
In the Vakhsh valley of southern Tajikistan, near the city of Bokhtar, once called Qurghonteppa, a low mound of earth in the fields hides the remains of a Buddhist monastery from the seventh and eighth centuries. Excavations at Ajina Tepa, which means the hill of the demons in local tradition, revealed a complex of courtyards, cells, corridors and stupas, built of mud brick and decorated with paintings and clay sculptures. The most spectacular find, uncovered in 1966, was a giant reclining Buddha, around thirteen metres long, depicting the Buddha entering nirvana.
Read the complete Ajinatepa Buddhist monastery write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 151 km into the recorded legs you reach Ajinatepa Buddhist monastery. Next is back through Zoli Zard.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Zoli Zard write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Zoli Zard, late in the day. Next is Shahristoni Zoli Zar.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Shahristoni Zoli Zar write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Shahristoni Zoli Zar. That is the ride.
Shahristoni Zoli Zar → Zoli Zard is 70 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Zoli Zard → Ajinatepa Buddhist monastery is 81 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Ajinatepa Buddhist monastery → back through Zoli Zard is 83 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Zoli Zard → Shahristoni Zoli Zar is 70 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.