Daereungwon

Interesting facts

Hwangnamdaechong is the largest Silla tomb ever found: its joined mounds stretch about 120 metres north to south and rise over 20 metres high.

In Hwangnamdaechong the queen in the north mound wore a solid gold crown, while the king in the south mound had only gilt-bronze and silver crowns.

A silver belt fitting from the north mound of Hwangnamdaechong carries the Chinese characters for 'belt of the lady', identifying its occupant as a woman.

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.

The winged horse on the Cheonmachong saddle flap is painted on birch bark, one of the very few paintings to survive from the Silla kingdom.

Cheonmachong, formerly known simply as Tomb No. 155, is about 47 metres across and nearly 13 metres high, and many scholars link it to King Jijeung.

The Silla tombs here were built with a wooden burial chamber buried under a heap of river stones and then sealed with earth, which made tunnelling in almost impossible.

Excavations here began in 1921 with Geumgwanchong, the 'Gold Crown Tomb', named after the gold crown found inside.

The park was designated a Historic Site of South Korea in 2011, and about a million people visit it each year.

Why it is worth it

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. The mounds rise like soft green hills among pines and paths, and their smooth curves against the sky are the image of the city. The largest, Hwangnamdaechong, is a double mound, two tombs joined end to end; another is attributed to King Michu.

The tombs were built so solidly that looters could not break into them, and so they reached the 20th century almost intact. Excavations began under Japanese rule and continued after liberation. The most famous was Cheonmachong, opened in 1973 and dated to the late 5th or early 6th century. Among the more than eleven thousand objects it held was a gold crown, the largest and most elaborate ever found in Korea, together with gold belts, caps and gilt-bronze shoes. It also gave the tomb its name: a birch-bark saddle flap painted with a white winged horse in full stride.

Cheonmachong is the one tomb in the park open to visitors inside; the original finds are in the Gyeongju National Museum. Recent excavations inside the park continue to turn up treasures, including a pair of ceremonial gilt-bronze shoes found in 2020. Daereungwon is part of the Gyeongju Historic Areas, a World Heritage site since 2000.

Getting there

The park lies in central Gyeongju, about half a kilometre from the city centre, with parking on site. The nearest airport is Pohang Airport (KPO), about 25 km away.

Daereungwon

Interesting facts

Why it is worth it

Getting there

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