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.
From Farkhor it runs 453 km to Farkhor; allow about 7 h 47 of riding. The stops in between: Ajinatepa Buddhist monastery, Zoli Zard and back through Ajinatepa Buddhist monastery. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,150 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Shahrtepa lies in the lowlands of southern Tajikistan, in Khatlon province, within sight of the Panj river and the Afghan hills beyond. The word tepa means a mound, and it is the right word: a mound that has built up over centuries as one settlement was layered over another, in the Bactrian country that Alexander crossed and that later fed the Kushan empire. A Buddhist temple site is linked with this area, a reminder that this was once a place where monks, merchants and caravans met on the way between India, Central Asia and China.
Read the complete Shahrtepa write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Shahrtepa is where the day begins. 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.
Ajinatepa Buddhist monastery comes up about 143 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 226 km into the recorded legs you reach Zoli Zard. Next is back through Ajinatepa Buddhist monastery.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ajinatepa Buddhist monastery write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Ajinatepa Buddhist monastery, late in the day. Next is Shahrtepa.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Shahrtepa write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Shahrtepa. That is the ride.
Shahrtepa → Ajinatepa Buddhist monastery is 143 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Ajinatepa Buddhist monastery → Zoli Zard is 83 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Zoli Zard → back through Ajinatepa Buddhist monastery is 81 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Ajinatepa Buddhist monastery → Shahrtepa is 146 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.