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.
280 km from Samarkand to Samarkand, about 4 h 06 of riding. It goes by way of Jartepa II Temple, Sanjarshakh Settlement, Gardani Khisor Settlement and back through Sanjarshakh Settlement. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,900 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Uzbekistan into Tajikistan - carry ID and check the toll rules. The line favours views over speed.
Ulugh Beg was a strange kind of ruler. He was Timur's grandson, governor of Samarkand and then the whole realm, but his heart lay with the stars, and around 1420 he built an observatory on a hill north-east of the city that was among the finest in the world. The principal instrument was a gigantic meridian arc, a curved track set into a trench, with a radius of some forty metres, which let his astronomers measure the positions of stars with remarkable accuracy. The star catalogue they compiled, the Zij-i-Sultani, stayed a standard reference for over two centuries, and it corrected many errors in Ptolemy's.
Read the complete Ulugh Bek's Observatory write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ulugh Bek's Observatory is where the day begins. Next is Jartepa II Temple.
The Zarafshan valley is the green artery of central Uzbekistan, carrying meltwater from the mountains of Tajikistan west past Samarkand and Bukhara into the desert. South of Samarkand, the land rises into the foothills of the Zarafshan range, and it is here, near Urgut and close to the Tajik border, that the Jartepa site lies, with remains of a temple from the Sogdian era.
Read the complete Jartepa II Temple write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Jartepa II Temple comes up about 37 km into the recorded legs. Next is Sanjarshakh Settlement.
Sanjarshakh lies in the Zarafshan valley of Tajikistan, a short ride from the town of Panjakent, and its low mounds and walls are the remains of a Sogdian settlement. The Sogdians were the great merchants of Central Asia, who spoke an Iranian language and carried silk, spices, paper and ideas along the Silk Road from China to Persia and beyond, and their language was the common tongue of the trade routes for several centuries. Their towns lay in the valleys of the Zarafshan and the Kashkadarya, and Panjakent, a few kilometres from here, is the best known, with houses decorated with wall paintings of epic stories, banquets and gods, that are now in the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg.
Read the complete Sanjarshakh Settlement write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 73 km into the recorded legs you reach Sanjarshakh Settlement. Next is Gardani Khisor Settlement.
Khisor, or Hissar, is a word that turns up across Central Asia for a fortress, and Gardani Khisor is one of those lonely fortress-hills of the upper Zeravshan valley in Tajikistan. It stands a few kilometres from the river, west of the little town of Ayní, in country where the plain narrows and the Fan Mountains start to rear up to the south. I can tell you the setting better than the ruin, because there is not much published on the site and what stands is mostly broken walls and mounds, but the pattern is familiar. The Sogdians and their successors put small forts on rocky knolls to watch the river road and the side valleys, and the villagers below kept orchards and flocks within shouting distance of safety.
Read the complete Gardani Khisor Settlement write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Gardani Khisor Settlement, about halfway. Next is back through Sanjarshakh Settlement.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sanjarshakh Settlement write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Sanjarshakh Settlement sits at 216 km, about halfway. Next is back through Jartepa II Temple.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Jartepa II Temple write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Jartepa II Temple comes up about 243 km into the recorded legs. Next is Ulugh Bek's Observatory.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ulugh Bek's Observatory write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ulugh Bek's Observatory closes the day.
Ulugh Bek's Observatory → Jartepa II Temple is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Jartepa II Temple → Sanjarshakh Settlement is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sanjarshakh Settlement → Gardani Khisor Settlement is 65 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Gardani Khisor Settlement → back through Sanjarshakh Settlement is 69 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Sanjarshakh Settlement → back through Jartepa II Temple is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Jartepa II Temple → Ulugh Bek's Observatory is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.