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 150 km round trip from Jayamkondacholapuram - roughly 2 h 21 in the saddle. The stops in between: The Airavatesvara Temple Complex, Great Living Chola Temples and back through The Airavatesvara Temple Complex. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Rajendra Chola I was a king who named his capital after a river trip. After a military campaign that carried his armies as far as the Ganges, he founded a new city about the year 1025 and called it Gangaikonda Cholapuram, the city of the Chola who took the Ganges, and he built a great temple to Shiva at its heart. It stood for two and a half centuries as the capital of one of the great South Indian empires, which at its peak had a navy that reached Southeast Asia. Today the city has gone, but the temple remains, an enormous pyramid of granite rising about fifty-five metres above the surrounding fields, with a tower whose stepped profile is gently curved rather than straight, a style so refined that it feels almost organic.
Read the complete The Brihadisvara Temple Complex write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Brihadisvara Temple Complex is where the day begins. Next is The Airavatesvara Temple Complex.
Darasuram is a quiet town in the Kaveri delta, a few kilometres from Kumbakonam, and its temple is one of the gems of Chola architecture. The Airavatesvara temple was built in the twelfth century under Rajaraja II, and it is smaller and more delicate than the great temple of Thanjavur, as though the Cholas, at the height of their power, had decided to put their energy into detail. Every surface is carved: miniature friezes of dancers and musicians, the stories of the Shaiva saints, and narrow panels of gods and animals in fine, polished stone.
Read the complete The Airavatesvara Temple Complex write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Airavatesvara Temple Complex comes up about 37 km into the recorded legs. Next is Great Living Chola Temples.
The Cauvery delta is the rice bowl of Tamil Nadu, and for a thousand years it fed an empire. The Cholas, who ruled much of southern India from the ninth to the thirteenth century, built their power on the fields, the ports and the fleet that carried their armies as far as Sumatra, and they poured their wealth into temples. Three of these, the Brihadisvara at Thanjavur, the one at Gangaikonda Cholapuram and the Airavatesvara at Darasuram, are together a UNESCO World Heritage site, the Great Living Chola Temples, and the adjective is accurate: priests still perform rites in them daily.
Read the complete Great Living Chola Temples write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 74 km into the recorded legs you reach Great Living Chola Temples. Next is back through The Airavatesvara Temple Complex.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Airavatesvara Temple Complex write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through The Airavatesvara Temple Complex, late in the day. Next is The Brihadisvara Temple Complex.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Brihadisvara Temple Complex write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at The Brihadisvara Temple Complex. That is the ride.
The Brihadisvara Temple Complex → The Airavatesvara Temple Complex is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Airavatesvara Temple Complex → Great Living Chola Temples is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Great Living Chola Temples → back through The Airavatesvara Temple Complex is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through The Airavatesvara Temple Complex → The Brihadisvara Temple Complex is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.