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 Shofirkon Shahri it runs 280 km to Shofirkon Shahri; allow about 5 h 21 of riding. On the way it passes Deggaron Mosque, Dabusiya Settlement and back through Deggaron Mosque. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
North of Bukhara the irrigated land eventually runs into the sand, and on that edge lies Vardanze, the ruins of an ancient city that was once the capital of a local principality in the Bukhara oasis. Its mound of collapsed mud-brick walls and citadel rises above the fields near Shofirkon, and archaeologists have traced its history back more than two thousand years. It flourished as a trading post on the Silk Road and later declined, partly because the desert advanced and the water supply failed, and its ruins are part of the Zarafshan-Karakum corridor listed by UNESCO in 2023.
Read the complete Vardanze Settlement write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Vardanze Settlement is where the day begins. Next is Deggaron Mosque.
In the village of Hazara, in the Zarafshan valley between Bukhara and Samarkand, stands one of the oldest mosques in Central Asia. The Deggaron mosque dates from the eleventh century, and from the outside it looks almost humble: a square, squat brick building with a cluster of low domes. Inside, it is a revelation, with massive brick columns supporting a forest of small domes and arches, the brickwork laid in patterns that play with light and shadow. It is a rare survivor of the pre-Mongol architecture of the region, and it forms part of the Silk Roads listing for the Zarafshan-Karakum corridor, inscribed by UNESCO in 2023.
Read the complete Deggaron Mosque write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Deggaron Mosque comes up about 66 km into the recorded legs. Next is Dabusiya Settlement.
Halfway along the old road from Samarkand to Bukhara, where the Zeravshan valley widens into irrigated plain, there is a ruined town called Dabusiya. The Sogdians founded it, and it grew into a staging post on the Silk Road, where caravans paused for water, fodder and trade. The Arabs reached it in the early eighth century and the town held out and changed hands as the region went through conquest and conversion. By the Middle Ages it was a modest brick town with a citadel, a mosque and workshops. The Mongols and later shifts in the river sealed its decline.
Read the complete Dabusiya Settlement write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 142 km into the recorded legs you reach Dabusiya Settlement. Next is back through Deggaron Mosque.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Deggaron Mosque write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Deggaron Mosque, late in the day. Next is Vardanze Settlement.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Vardanze Settlement write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Vardanze Settlement. That is the ride.
Vardanze Settlement → Deggaron Mosque is 66 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Deggaron Mosque → Dabusiya Settlement is 76 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Dabusiya Settlement → back through Deggaron Mosque is 75 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Deggaron Mosque → Vardanze Settlement is 63 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.