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: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
395 km from Safed to Safed, about 6 h 49 of riding. The stops in between: Mount Amel Castles, Junayn Garden, Necropolis of Bet She’arim: A Landmark of and Sebastia. It crosses Israel, Lebanon and Palestinian Territories - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 37 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
If you stand on the top of Tel Hazor on a clear day, the view is of the Hula valley to the north and the hills of Upper Galilee to the west, with the snow-capped hump of Mount Hermon, in winter, sitting at the far end. The tel itself is a vast, flat-topped mound, the largest ancient site in Israel's north, rising out of the fields near Kibbutz Ayelet HaShahar. It is what archaeologists call a tel, a hill made of the layers of cities built one on top of another over thousands of years.
Read the complete Tel Hazor write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Tel Hazor is where the day begins. Next is Mount Amel Castles.
It is a region of terraced slopes, olive groves, tobacco patches and stone villages, with the Hula valley falling away to the east and the long wall of Mount Hermon hanging over everything on a clear day. The nearest settlements are Ain Ebel on the Lebanese side and Qiryat Shemona and Metulla on the Israeli side, which tells you most of what you need to know about the place: this is a frontier, and the frontier shapes every road.
Read the complete Mount Amel Castles write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Mount Amel Castles comes up about 37 km into the recorded legs. Next is Junayn Garden.
On the coastal plain of western Galilee, between Nahariya and Akko, a small garden known as Junayn is one of the Bahá'í holy places in Israel. Bahá'u'lláh, the founder of the Bahá'í Faith, spent his final years in exile in this region in the late nineteenth century, after being banished by the Ottoman authorities from Persia and then from Baghdad, Istanbul and Edirne. Once his confinement in the prison-city of Akko was relaxed, he would visit gardens around the town, and this was one of them. The Bahá'í holy places in Haifa and western Galilee, including the Shrine of Bahá'u'lláh at Bahjí and the terraced gardens on Mount Carmel, were listed by UNESCO in 2008. The gardens are tended with remarkable precision by Bahá'í volunteers from around the world, and the atmosphere is serene.
Read the complete Junayn Garden write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 89 km into the recorded legs you reach Junayn Garden. 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.
Necropolis of Bet She’arim: A Landmark of, about halfway. Next is Sebastia.
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 sits at 198 km, about halfway. 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.
back through Necropolis of Bet She’arim: A Landmark of comes up about 261 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Junayn Garden.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Junayn Garden write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 305 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Junayn Garden. Next is back through Mount Amel Castles.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Mount Amel Castles write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Mount Amel Castles, late in the day. Next is Tel Hazor.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Tel Hazor write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 395 km.
Tel Hazor → Mount Amel Castles is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Mount Amel Castles → Junayn Garden is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Junayn Garden → Necropolis of Bet She’arim: A Landmark of is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Necropolis of Bet She’arim: A Landmark of → Sebastia is 64 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sebastia → back through Necropolis of Bet She’arim: A Landmark of is 64 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 Junayn Garden is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Junayn Garden → back through Mount Amel Castles is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Mount Amel Castles → Tel Hazor is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.