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.
A 290 km round trip from Vobkent Shahri - roughly 5 h 05 in the saddle. It goes by way of Bahouddin Naqshband Architectural Complex, Varakhsha Settlement, Paikend Settlement and back through Varakhsha Settlement. The line favours views over speed.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 56 km this is Uzbekistan Silk Road Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
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 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.
Bahouddin Naqshband Architectural Complex comes up about 35 km into the recorded legs. Next is Varakhsha Settlement.
Thirty kilometres or so west of Bukhara, beyond the last irrigated fields, the land turns to sand and salt crust at the edge of the Kyzylkum desert, and here a low mound of eroded mud brick rises from the flat ground. This is Varakhsha, once a flourishing town and the residence of the Bukhar Khudats, the pre-Islamic rulers of the Bukhara oasis. It thrived in the early medieval centuries, when the oasis extended further than it does today, and was abandoned around the eleventh century, probably as irrigation failed and the desert advanced.
Read the complete Varakhsha Settlement write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 91 km into the recorded legs you reach Varakhsha Settlement. Next is Paikend Settlement.
The ancient city of Paikend lies in the desert on the edge of the Bukhara oasis, in Uzbekistan, and it is so old that the Silk Road was only one chapter of its story. Early writers called it the city of merchants. It stood on a major route between the Zarafshan river and the Amu Darya, near the sands of the Kyzylkum, and it was a fortified trading town from the early centuries BC, with a citadel, a main town and a market district, at its peak in the early Islamic period. It declined after the eleventh century, as the river shifted and Bukhara took the trade.
Read the complete Paikend Settlement write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Paikend Settlement, about halfway. Next is back through Varakhsha Settlement.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Varakhsha Settlement write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Varakhsha Settlement sits at 173 km, about halfway. Next is back through Bahouddin Naqshband Architectural Complex.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Bahouddin Naqshband Architectural Complex write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Bahouddin Naqshband Architectural Complex comes up about 257 km into the recorded legs. 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.
Vobkent Minaret closes the day.
Vobkent Minaret → Bahouddin Naqshband Architectural Complex is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Bahouddin Naqshband Architectural Complex → Varakhsha Settlement is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Varakhsha Settlement → Paikend Settlement is 63 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Paikend Settlement → back through Varakhsha Settlement is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Varakhsha Settlement → back through Bahouddin Naqshband Architectural Complex is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Bahouddin Naqshband Architectural Complex → Vobkent Minaret is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.