CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. 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.
326 km from Sarykemer to Sarykemer, about 5 h 14 of riding. The stops in between: Site of Akyrtas, Site of Ornek, Site of Kulan and back through Site of Ornek. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,750 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
The ruined town of Kostobe lies in the broad valley of the Talas river, a few kilometres from Sarykemer and about sixteen from Taraz, in the south of Kazakhstan. It belongs to the string of settlements along the Silk Road that UNESCO recognised in 2014 as the Chang'an-Tianshan corridor, and its low mounds and eroded walls recall a time when caravans passed through here between China, Central Asia and the Middle East. Details of the excavations are the business of archaeologists, but the general picture is clear: a walled medieval trading town on fertile land, close to a river and a major route.
Read the complete Site of Kostobe write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Site of Kostobe is where the day begins. Next is Site of Akyrtas.
Out on the steppe east of Taraz, in southern Kazakhstan, the remains of Akyrtas are a puzzle that no one has fully solved. Rows of massive blocks of red sandstone lie in a vast rectangle, the foundations of a palace or fortified complex that seems to have been planned on an enormous scale and never finished. Its date is usually placed around the eighth or ninth century, but who built it, an Arab governor, a Turkic ruler of the Karluks, or someone else entirely, remains open. The stones are carefully cut, the layout is formal, with a central courtyard and rooms around it, and the whole thing sits in an empty landscape that only deepens the mystery. It is part of the transnational World Heritage site of the Silk Roads.
Read the complete Site of Akyrtas write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Site of Akyrtas comes up 46 km in. Next is Site of Ornek.
Ornek is a place where the Silk Road becomes tangible in the grass. It lies in the foothills of the Talas Alatau, at the western end of the Tian Shan, in southern Kazakhstan near the border with Kyrgyzstan, and it was a settlement of the Turkic peoples who dominated these steppes between roughly the eighth and twelfth centuries. Its earthen walls, the outline of its citadel and the lines of houses are visible as low mounds, and scattered around are balbals, carved stone figures with faces, raised by the Turks to honour the dead. Ornek, like nearby Kulan and Kostobe, was inscribed as part of the Silk Roads corridor running from Chang'an to the Tian Shan.
Read the complete Site of Ornek write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
91 km in you reach Site of Ornek. Next is Site of Kulan.
Nobody lives at Kulan now, except sheep and the odd herder, but in the early Middle Ages it was a town of the Silk Road, a stop on the route that ran from China across the Tian Shan foothills into Central Asia. The plain it stands on lies in the south of Kazakhstan, in the Zhambyl region, between the snowy ridges of the Kyrgyz Alatau, which rise to the south, and the dry steppe stretching north to Lake Balkhash and beyond. Here the Chu river valley and the Taraz road made a natural highway for caravans, and the settlement of Kulan, in the early medieval centuries, was a market and a staging post, with the mud-brick walls, towers and a citadel typical of the region. It was listed in 2014, together with Kostobe and many other sites, as part of the Silk Roads network's Tian-Shan corridor.
Read the complete Site of Kulan write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Site of Kulan, about halfway. Next is back through Site of Ornek.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Site of Ornek write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Site of Ornek sits at 182 km, about halfway. Next is back through Site of Akyrtas.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Site of Akyrtas write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Site of Akyrtas comes up 228 km in. Next is Site of Kostobe.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Site of Kostobe write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Site of Kostobe closes the day.
Site of Kostobe → Site of Akyrtas is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Site of Akyrtas → Site of Ornek is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Site of Ornek → Site of Kulan is 66 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Site of Kulan → back through Site of Ornek is 66 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Site of Ornek → back through Site of Akyrtas is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Site of Akyrtas → Site of Kostobe is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.