Korean best places

Gyeongju

It’s the massive burial mounds, brown and dusted by frost in the winter, and carpeted with a dark-green nap in the summer, which punctuate any visit to Gyeongju. Rising here and there in populated and rural areas, they dominate all other physical realities in this riverine valley between Daegu and Busan. The mounds, memorial tombs or neung in Korean, represent the glory that was Silla, and the ancient wonders contained within are now waiting to be unearthed. The area around the city is also full of interest – secluded temples, including famous Bulguk-sa, abound in the wooded hills of Namsan and Tohamsan.

Opulent shaman kings

Gyeongju was well known to Asia’s ancients as Geumseong, the home of powerful and opulent shaman kings. Today, it’s an easy-going resort town where rice cultivation and tourism are more important than wars of conquest. Its distinction as a one-time seat of power, however, cannot ever be forgotten. This 214-sq-km (83-sq-mile) valley is dotted with burial tombs – most from the 1st to 8th centuries but some more recent – and tired pagodas, fortress ruins, granite sculptures, palace grounds, and other remnants of the rich Three Kingdoms Period.

Gyeongju is one of the three most popular destinations in South Korea (the other two being Seoul and Jeju-do), and Koreans have an immense pride in Gyeongju and the Silla Kingdom that was able to unite the peninsula for the first time. Like the corresponding Tang Dynasty in neighboring China, the Silla period is considered the epitome of Korean art and culture. In the early Silla period, the dominant belief system was based on shamanism, that magical world inhabited by benevolent mountain spirits and malevolent demons. The huge tombs of Gyeongju and other areas on the Korean peninsula date from this period, as do magnificent golden crowns decorated with amulets. Eventually Buddhism was accepted by the royal families and spread rapidly throughout the kingdom. The religious fervor sparked by this new religion resulted in a flowering of the arts that remains unsurpassed. Much of the art was religious in nature, pagodas, statues, and magnificent temple compounds, all in praise of the Buddha.

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Places to visit in Gyeongju

Tumuli Park

There are several routes you can take to see Gyeongju’s sites, but since Tumuli Park sits near the middle of the historic part of the city, it’s a good place to start. This is a unique 15-hectare (37-acre) “tomb park” on the southeast side of Gyeongju with some 20 tombs of varying sizes that were originally heaped into place as early as the mid-1st century. Until 30 years ago, this restored, beautifully landscaped and lamplit complex of mounded graves was just another ordinary neighborhood in Gyeongju. When private individuals and government archeological teams began to find literally thousands of important items here, however, the area was quickly cleared of houses and was designated as a national museum and site of major historical significance. The restoration of Tumuli Park began in 1973, and the complex was officially dedicated and opened to the public in 1975.

The largest of the tombs, that of King Michu (r. 262–85), has been identified in ancient chronicles as the “Great Tomb.” However, a secondary tomb (No. 155), the so-called Cheonmachong, or “Heavenly Tomb” or “Flying Horse Tomb,” is probably the best-known gravesite here. This tomb, about 50 meters (164ft) in diameter and 12.7 meters (42ft) high, was excavated in 1973, and in its collapsed wood and stone burial chambers were found numerous important treasures.

Anapji Pond

Anapji Pond is where Silla kings and queens spent their leisure moments relaxing, writing poetry, playing games, and entertaining visiting dignitaries. This was said to have been the grandest garden in the Orient, with trees and plants brought in from throughout Asia. It lay in ruins for centuries, until 1975, when a team of archeologists began working at the site. To their surprise, hundreds of dishes, tiles, religious artifacts, and even a boat were found at the bottom of the silted pond. These items, which were discarded or accidentally dropped by royal revelers, can now be seen at the Gyeongju National Museum. Today, the pond is back, along with reproductions of three pavilions that once stood at the water’s edge. While Anapji may never regain the glory of its Silla days, it remains a pleasant place to take a leisurely break while touring Gyeongju.

Gyeongju National Museum

Gyeongju is often called “Korea’s Open-air Museum.” The phrase is apt, because so many of the city’s treasures are outdoors where they can be seen, touched, and experienced. Yet in the Gyeongju National Museum, you can see some of the finest of more than 80,000 items unearthed during recent and old-time digs in this area: metal work, paintings, earthenware, calligraphic scrolls, folk art objects, weapons, porcelains, carved jades, and gold, granite, and bronze sculptures wrought in various shamanist, Buddhist, Taoist, and Confucian motifs. Only about 10 minutes by bicycle from Anapji Pond, a visit to this world-class museum will put your tour of Gyeongju’s other historic sites into perspective.

Among the museum’s important pieces is the huge bronze Emille (pronounced “Em-ee-leh”) Bell, The Divine Bell for the Great King Seongdeok, which is one of the world’s oldest, having been cast in ad 771. It is also one of the largest, weighing 20 tonnes and measuring 3 meters (10ft) in height and 2.3 meters (7½ft) in diameter. This Buddhist bell, which originally hung in a pavilion at nearby Bongdeok-sa Temple, is embellished with four relief devas who kneel facing each other on lotus blossom cushions. It is said that the bell’s sonorous tones can be heard 64km (40 miles) away on a clear day. The bell’s name, it has been written, comes from an ancient Silla term that literally means “mummy.” The bell was given this name because its sound resembles the voice of a lost child crying for its mother. 

Gyeongju Folk Craft Village

Gyeongju Folk Craft Village has a large building selling crafts made by local potters, wood carvers, and other local artisans, who live and work in the small village directly behind. Those who take the time to walk through the village can often observe artisans at work. Much of their work reproduces designs and pieces from the Silla period, an indication of the influence this culture still exerts on the Korean peninsula a millennium after its demise.

Bulguk-sa

This sprawling temple complex about 16km (10 miles) due south of Gyeongju on the western slopes of Tohamsan is one of the oldest surviving Buddhist monasteries in Korea. First built during the reign of Silla King Beopheung (r. 514–40), Bulguk-sa, “Temple of the Buddha-land,” is also Korea’s most famous temple. Its renown comes not from its age or size but probably because it stands, flawlessly restored, as a splendid example of Silla-era architecture in a spectacular hillside setting lush with manicured stands of pine, plum, peach, pear, cherry, and cryptomeria trees. It also enshrines some of the country’s and Korean Buddhism’s most important national treasures. The historical significance of Bulguk-sa and the nearby Seokguram were recognized when they were listed as Unesco World Heritage Sites in 1995.

Wonderfully stone-crafted steps and bridges carry the visitor on an uphill stroll to the broad granite block terraces on which this pristine temple compound stands. Almost all of the hand-painted wood structures on these terraces are of recent Joseon-dynasty construction, but most of the stone structures – large granite blocks fitted together without mortar – are original. 

King Munmu's underwater tomb

The Koreans have always worried – understandably – about invasion from their neighbors to the East, so much so that when King Munmu died, he requested that his body be buried underwater and promised to return as a dragon and protect Korea from the Japanese. His son complied and buried him by a tiny island near the Gyeongju shoreline. (Take a bus from Gyeongju to Bonggil-ri, look out to sea and you can’t miss the little rocky islet.) A nearby temple and pavilion offer the dragon deity a resting spot and a private subterranean entrance from the water. Whether the king returned as a dragon is debatable: history shows the Japanese invaded Korea many times. Today, the site draws beachgoers in summer and tourists year round, who walk the shore and often stop in for fish at the local restaurants.