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.
149 km from Vobkent Shahri to Vobkent Shahri, about 3 h 16 of riding. On the way it passes Vardanze Settlement, Bahouddin Naqshband Architectural Complex and back through Vardanze Settlement. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
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 is where the day begins. Next is Vardanze Settlement.
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 comes up about 21 km into the recorded legs. Next is Bahouddin Naqshband Architectural Complex.
Bahauddin Naqshband died in 1389 in the village where he was born, a short ride from Bukhara, and the Sufi order that bears his name went on to spread across Central Asia, India, the Ottoman Empire and beyond. The Naqshbandi order emphasised silent remembrance of God and living a spiritual life within the everyday world, and its founder's tomb became one of the most important pilgrimage sites in Central Asia, so much so that locals sometimes call it the Mecca of Central Asia. The complex, with its mosques, minaret, courtyards and the tomb itself, was largely built in the sixteenth century under the Shaybanid rulers and restored in recent decades.
Read the complete Bahouddin Naqshband Architectural Complex write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 75 km into the recorded legs you reach Bahouddin Naqshband Architectural Complex. Next is back through 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 through Vardanze Settlement, late in the day. Next is 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 at Vobkent Minaret. That is the ride.
Vobkent Minaret → Vardanze Settlement is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Vardanze Settlement → Bahouddin Naqshband Architectural Complex is 54 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Bahouddin Naqshband Architectural Complex → back through Vardanze Settlement is 53 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Vardanze Settlement → Vobkent Minaret is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.