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.
273 km from Shofirkon Shahri to Shofirkon Shahri, about 5 h 18 of riding. On the way it passes Chasma-i Ayub Khazira, Historic Centre of Bukhara, Vobkent Minaret and back through Vobkent Minaret. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 36 km this is Uzbekistan Silk Road Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
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 Chasma-i Ayub Khazira.
North of Bukhara, the green irrigated oasis of the Zarafshan river spreads out in a patchwork of cotton fields, orchards, mulberry trees and villages, and the point named Chasma-i Ayub Khazira lies in this landscape, near the village of Khazara, between Vobkent and Gijduvon. Chashma-i Ayub, the spring of Job, is a name given to several holy springs in Central Asia, linked to the legend that the prophet Job struck the ground with his staff and water gushed forth in a time of drought. The most famous is in Bukhara itself, a mausoleum over a spring, and this site near Khazara may be another shrine of the same tradition, listed as part of the Silk Roads corridor of the Zarafshan valley.
Read the complete Chasma-i Ayub Khazira write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Chasma-i Ayub Khazira comes up about 39 km into the recorded legs. Next is Historic Centre of Bukhara.
Bukhara is a city that feels like a lived-in museum. For more than two thousand years it has been a trading town on the routes across Central Asia, and in the ninth and tenth centuries, under the Samanid dynasty, it was one of the great centres of Islamic learning, home to scholars such as Ibn Sina, known in the West as Avicenna. Genghis Khan sacked it in 1220, but the Kalyan Minaret, built in 1127, survived, and legend says even the conqueror was impressed. Today the old city is a remarkable ensemble of mosques, madrasas, caravanserais and domed bazaars, and it entered the World Heritage list in 1993.
Read the complete Historic Centre of Bukhara write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 75 km into the recorded legs you reach Historic Centre of Bukhara. Next is Vobkent Minaret.
Vobkent's minaret is a tall brick finger rising out of a small Uzbek town on the edge of the Bukhara oasis. It was built in the late twelfth century, in the same tradition as the more famous Kalyan minaret in Bukhara, which it predates in style by a few years and rivals in elegance. Standing nearly forty metres high, it is made entirely of fired brick laid in bands of geometric patterns, with a tapering shaft and a lantern top. Up close, the craftsmanship is startling: no two courses seem quite the same.
Read the complete Vobkent Minaret write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Vobkent Minaret, about halfway.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Historic Centre of Bukhara write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Historic Centre of Bukhara sits at 151 km, about halfway. Next is back through Vobkent Minaret.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Vobkent Minaret write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Vobkent Minaret comes up about 170 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Historic Centre of Bukhara.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Historic Centre of Bukhara write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 201 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Historic Centre of Bukhara. Next is back through Chasma-i Ayub Khazira.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Chasma-i Ayub Khazira write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Chasma-i Ayub Khazira, 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.
The route ends here after 273 km.
Vardanze Settlement → Chasma-i Ayub Khazira is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Chasma-i Ayub Khazira → Historic Centre of Bukhara is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Historic Centre of Bukhara → Vobkent Minaret is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Vobkent Minaret → Historic Centre of Bukhara is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Historic Centre of Bukhara → back through Vobkent Minaret is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Vobkent Minaret → back through Historic Centre of Bukhara is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Historic Centre of Bukhara → back through Chasma-i Ayub Khazira is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Chasma-i Ayub Khazira → Vardanze Settlement is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.