The Most Beautiful Places in North Gyeongsang
5 places ยท updated 13 October 2026
In short: By our ranking, the most beautiful places in North Gyeongsang are Bulguksa, Seokguram and Hahoe Folk Village. The list covers 5 places. Last updated 13 October 2026.
North Gyeongsang is the heartland of the Silla kingdom, which ruled much of the Korean peninsula for centuries from its capital at Gyeongju. Buddhism, adopted by Silla as a state religion, shaped its art, and Gyeongju became one of the great Buddhist cities of East Asia. The mountains of the province also sheltered later Confucian culture: in the Joseon era, its villages and academies were among the most conservative and scholarly in Korea.
Bulguksa, on the slopes of Mount Toham, was rebuilt in the 8th century as a vision of the Buddhist paradise in timber and stone, with stone stairways and two celebrated pagodas, Dabotap and Seokgatap. Higher on the same mountain, Seokguram is an artificial granite grotto in which a seated Buddha faces east towards the sea; together they are a World Heritage Site. In the centre of Gyeongju, Daereungwon is a park of grassy royal burial mounds, one of which, Cheonmachong, yielded a painted saddle flap showing a flying horse.
Buseoksa in Yeongju preserves one of the oldest wooden halls in Korea, Muryangsujeon, with gently swelling columns and a view across rows of mountain ridges. Hahoe Folk Village near Andong, home of the Ryu clan for generations, sits in a loop of the Nakdong river, its tile-roofed houses and thatched cottages kept as they were in the Joseon period.
In this list
| # | Place | Type | UNESCO |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bulguksa | Temple | |
| 2 | Seokguram | Rock-cut architecture | โ |
| 3 | Hahoe Folk Village | Most beautiful village | |
| 4 | Daereungwon | Tumulus | |
| 5 | Buseoksa | Temple |
01 Bulguksa
South Korea ยท 12.4 km from Gyeongju35.790ยฐ N 129.332ยฐ E
Bernard Gagnon ยท CC0 Bulguksa, on the wooded slopes of Mount Toham above Gyeongju, is the clearest surviving picture of how the kingdom of Silla imagined a Buddhist paradise on earth.
Did you know? The Blue Cloud and White Cloud stairways have 16 and 18 steps, 34 in all, matching the 34 stages on the path to enlightenment.
02 Seokguram
South Korea ยท 13.5 km from Gyeongju35.795ยฐ N 129.349ยฐ E
- UNESCO World Heritage
Bernard Gagnon ยท CC0 Seokguram is not a cave the earth made but one that people built to look like one. On the slopes of Tohamsan above Gyeongju, some 750 metres above sea level and facing the East Sea, craftsmen of the Unified Silla kingdom assembled an artificial grotto out of hundreds of cut granite blocks.
Did you know? The Eleven-faced Avalokitesvara behind the Buddha stands 2.18 metres tall and holds a vase with a lotus blossom.
03 Hahoe Folk Village
South Korea ยท 18.6 km from Andong36.538ยฐ N 128.521ยฐ E
Bernard Gagnon ยท CC0 Hahoe sits inside a loop of the Nakdong River, which bends around it in a wide S-curve; the name itself joins the words for "river" and "to turn back".
Did you know? According to legend, the carver Hur died when a curious girl spied on his secret work, which is why the last mask, the fool Imae, has no chin.
04 Daereungwon
South Korea ยท 0.5 km from Gyeongju35.838ยฐ N 129.212ยฐ E
์๋ฌต๊ด ยท CC BY-SA 4.0 Daereungwon, in the middle of Gyeongju, is a park of great grassy domes: 23 burial mounds of kings, queens and nobles of Silla, the kingdom that ruled this corner of Korea for centuries from its capital here.
Did you know? Seobongchong was named in 1926 after the Swedish crown prince Gustaf Adolf, an amateur archaeologist, helped excavate it: 'seo' for Sweden, 'bong' for the phoenixes on its crown.
05 Buseoksa
South Korea36.999ยฐ N 128.687ยฐ E
Image by jyi from Pixabay Buseoksa climbs the flank of Bonghwangsan in a series of stone-walled terraces, so that every gate and courtyard opens onto a wider view of the ranges of North Gyeongsang until, at the top, the old wooden hall of Muryangsujeon looks out over ridge after ridge of mountains.
Did you know? When Muryangsujeon was dismantled for repair in 1916, workers found a written record inside dating from the reign of the Joseon king Gwanghaegun.
How this list is ranked
Places are chosen for how they look, not for how famous they are: each one has its own description and a photograph credited to its author. The order is a single world ranking that weighs the beauty of the place in curated photography together with how widely it is documented โ the number of language editions of its encyclopedia article and how often that article is read in a year. The list is rebuilt as places are added, so the order and the counts on this page are always current.
Questions people ask
- What are the most beautiful places in North Gyeongsang?
- On our list, Bulguksa ranks first, followed by Seokguram and Hahoe Folk Village.
- When were Bulguksa and Seokguram built?
- Both were built in the mid-8th century under the Silla kingdom, traditionally credited to the minister Kim Daeseong. They were inscribed together as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995.
- Why is Hahoe Folk Village famous?
- Hahoe is a clan village of the Pungsan Ryu family that has kept its Joseon-era layout and houses, set in a bend of the Nakdong river. It is also known for the Hahoe mask dance, and it became a World Heritage Site in 2010 together with Yangdong village.
- What are the tumuli of Daereungwon?
- Daereungwon is a group of large earthen burial mounds of Silla kings and nobles in central Gyeongju. Excavations there uncovered gold crowns and the painting of a flying horse that gave the Cheonmachong tomb its name.
- What kinds of places are there to see in North Gyeongsang?
- In our collection, the places in North Gyeongsang are most often temples (2), villages (1), burial mounds (1) and rock-cut monuments (1).
- How many places are on this list in North Gyeongsang?
- The list covers 5 places.