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 Umm al Jimāl it runs 494 km to Umm al Jimāl; allow about 6 h 24 of riding. The stops in between: Quseir Amra, Um er-Rasas and back through Quseir Amra. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,000 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Umm al-Jimāl is a black town in a yellow desert. Built almost entirely of dark basalt, it rises from the plain of northern Jordan, near the Syrian border, about fifteen kilometres east of Mafraq. People lived here for centuries, from the Nabataean period through Roman, Byzantine and early Islamic times, and what survives today is an extraordinary rural town of houses, churches, water reservoirs, barracks and streets, many buildings still standing two or three storeys high. Because wood was scarce, the builders used long basalt slabs to make floors and roofs, supported on corbels and arches, and some of the stairways leading to the upper floors still cling to the walls. In 2024 UNESCO listed the site, recognising it as an exceptional example of a farming and trading town on the edge of the desert.
Read the complete Umm Al-Jimāl write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Umm Al-Jimāl is where the day begins. Next is Quseir Amra.
Qusayr Amra stands alone in the stony desert of eastern Jordan, in the Wadi Butm, about twenty-five kilometres from Azraq and some eighty from Amman. It is a small, low building of pale stone with three barrel-vaulted halls and a bathhouse, built in the early eighth century under the Umayyad caliphs, and its plain exterior hides some of the most surprising paintings in the early Islamic world.
Read the complete Quseir Amra write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Quseir Amra comes up about 115 km into the recorded legs. Next is Um er-Rasas.
The most surprising thing at Umm ar-Rasas is a tower. It stands alone in the fields about a kilometre north of the old town, a tall square column of stone, about fifteen metres high, with no door and a small chamber at the top, and it was built for a stylite, one of those early Christian ascetics who lived on top of pillars to be closer to heaven and further from the world. Stylites became famous in Syria in the fifth century, and this tower, which dates from the Byzantine period, is one of very few that survive in the region, and it may have been used as late as the ninth century. A monk lived in that little room, and pilgrims came to see him.
Read the complete Um er-Rasas write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 241 km into the recorded legs you reach Um er-Rasas. Next is back through Quseir Amra.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Quseir Amra write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Quseir Amra, late in the day. Next is Umm Al-Jimāl.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Umm Al-Jimāl write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Umm Al-Jimāl. That is the ride.
Umm Al-Jimāl → Quseir Amra is 115 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Quseir Amra → Um er-Rasas is 126 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Um er-Rasas → back through Quseir Amra is 127 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Quseir Amra → Umm Al-Jimāl is 127 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.