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 Panjakent it runs 272 km to Panjakent; allow about 4 h 58 of riding. It goes by way of Kafirkala Settlement, Historic Centre of Shakhrisyabz and back through Kafirkala Settlement. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,150 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Tajikistan into Uzbekistan - carry ID and check the toll rules. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
On a dusty loess terrace just outside modern Panjakent, a few low mud ridges and pits are all that remain of one of the richest cities on the Silk Road. Fourteen centuries ago this was a Sogdian town of merchants, with two-storey houses, temples and walls covered in paintings of feasts, heroes and gods. The best frescoes went to the Hermitage in St Petersburg and to the Rudaki museum in town, so bring some imagination with you, but standing among the excavated streets with the Zeravshan glittering below, the scale of the place still lands.
Read the complete Town of Ancient Penjikent write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Town of Ancient Penjikent is where the day begins. Next is Kafirkala Settlement.
A few kilometres south of Samarkand, on a mound beside an old irrigation canal, lie the ruins of Kafirkala, a fortified settlement that was an important centre of the Sogdian civilisation before the Arab conquest in the eighth century. The name means fortress of the infidels, given later by Muslim inhabitants. Excavations have revealed a citadel with walls, a palace and remains that tell of the last days of the Sogdian rulers before the city was burned.
Read the complete Kafirkala Settlement write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kafirkala Settlement comes up about 60 km into the recorded legs. Next is Historic Centre of Shakhrisyabz.
Timur, the conqueror known in the West as Tamerlane, was born in 1336 in a village near Shakhrisyabz, and when he became ruler of an empire stretching from Delhi to Damascus, he spent heavily on his home town. He made it a showpiece, and the main monument was Ak-Saray, the White Palace, begun in 1380 and never completed in his lifetime. Only two piers of the entrance portal survive, but they rise about thirty-eight metres, covered in blue, turquoise and gold tilework, and they still dwarf everything around them, a statement of power so big that it is hard to photograph from close up.
Read the complete Historic Centre of Shakhrisyabz write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 137 km into the recorded legs you reach Historic Centre of Shakhrisyabz. Next is back through Kafirkala Settlement.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kafirkala Settlement write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Kafirkala Settlement, late in the day. Next is Town of Ancient Penjikent.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Town of Ancient Penjikent write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Town of Ancient Penjikent. That is the ride.
Town of Ancient Penjikent → Kafirkala Settlement is 60 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Kafirkala Settlement → Historic Centre of Shakhrisyabz is 77 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Historic Centre of Shakhrisyabz → back through Kafirkala Settlement is 76 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Kafirkala Settlement → Town of Ancient Penjikent is 59 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.