Heritage Walking
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Daereungwon to Donggung: Walking Through Silla's Royal Capital

An outdoor walk through Daereungwon and central Gyeongju, without entering Cheonmachong or the paid grounds of Donggung Palace and Wolji Pond. The route passes the Heavenly Horse Tomb, the great double mound and King Michu's tomb inside Daereungwon, the stone tower of Cheomseongdae, Gyerim wood and King Naemul's tomb, the Choi family house and the Confucian school of Gyochon, the roofed Woljeonggyo bridge, the palace fortress of Wolseong with its stone ice-house, and ends at the entrance to Donggung Palace and Wolji Pond. Nine stops, all outdoors.

This is a self-guided walk, not a guided tour with a leader: no booking, no fixed start time. See the walking route and the walking map before you go, then follow the numbers — the audio guide plays by itself as you reach each stop. Free, with no app to install and no sign-up.

At ~80 min it fits a half day of independent travel, and joining it to another walk in Gyeongju makes a full-day itinerary.

Visiting Daereungwon to Donggung: Walking Through Silla's Royal Capital — hours, tickets and getting there

  • Opening hours Daereungwon 09:00–22:00 (rear-gate closing time: check separately) · Cheomseongdae 09:00–22:00 (until 21:00 in winter) · Gyerim open all day · Choi family house 09:30–17:00 (per Gyeongju City's 2026 guide) · Gyeongju Hyanggyo 09:00–18:00 · Woljeonggyo 09:00–22:00 · Donggung Palace and Wolji Pond 09:00–22:00 (ticketing until 21:30), open every day
  • The Choi family house is listed as closed on the last Monday of each month. Check individual sites for temporary closures.
  • Admission Daereungwon, Cheomseongdae, Gyerim, Gyochon, Woljeonggyo and Wolseong are free · Cheonmachong interior 3,000 won adults, 2,000 youth and soldiers, 1,000 children · Donggung Palace and Wolji Pond 3,000 won adults, 2,000 youth, 1,000 children (online tickets at gjpass.kr)
  • The Choi family house is listed as closed on the last Monday of each month and may restrict access on site; check before you go

Checked 2026-11. Always confirm on the official site before you go.

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Gyeongju, Korea · ~80 min · 3.6 km · 9 stops

Stops on this walk

1. Cheonmachong, the Heavenly Horse Tomb

Tomb 155, test-excavated in 1973 before Hwangnamdaechong, and named for a heavenly horse painted on birch bark.

Look at the grass mound in front of you, with a low entrance at its foot. This is Cheonmachong, the Heavenly Horse Tomb. You are inside Daereungwon, a walled park of Silla tombs in the middle of Gyeongju. The city's guide says the park was laid out in 1973, around a group of some twenty mounds. UNESCO lists this ground as the Tumuli Park Belt of the Gyeongju Historic Areas, inscribed in 2000. In the early 1970s the government planned to excavate the giant double mound nearby, Tomb 98, and open it to visitors. The city's magazine says a mound of that size, with its mound intact, had not been excavated before. So this smaller tomb was dug first, to gain experience. The dig began in the spring of 1973. In late July the team uncovered a gold crown. In August they found a mudguard, the flap that hangs beside a horse's saddle. It was made of layers of birch bark, and painted on it was a white horse flying through the air. The tomb was named after that painting. The national heritage register lists the painting as a National Treasure, about seventy-five by fifty-three centimetres. The city's guide adds that some now argue the animal is a qilin, a horned creature of legend, rather than a horse. The city's guide dates the tomb to the late fifth or early sixth century. It is a stone-mound wooden-chamber tomb. A wooden chamber held the coffin. Stones were heaped over it, sealed with clay, and covered with earth. The restored tomb opened to visitors in June 1976. If you go inside, you can see the chamber rebuilt behind glass. The city's guide says the real crown and the painting are at the Gyeongju National Museum.

These mounds are graves. Please stay on the paths and do not climb the grass.

2. Hwangnamdaechong, the Great Double Mound

Two joined burial mounds, thought to hold a man and a woman, and an excavation that changed plans.

Look at the long mound ahead, with two humps joined together. This is Hwangnamdaechong, the Great Tomb of Hwangnam. The city's guide gives its size. It is twenty-three metres high, about a hundred and twenty metres from north to south, and eighty metres across. The guide calls it the largest tomb in Gyeongju. UNESCO's description of these tomb groups says most mounds are domed, but some take the form of a half-moon or a gourd. This one is the gourd. It is really two tombs joined into one shape. Archaeologists numbered it Tomb 98. It was excavated in the 1970s, and the city's guide says about fifty-seven thousand objects came out of it. The two halves held different things. The northern mound held a gold crown, and a belt inscribed buindae, which the guide reads as a woman's belt. The southern mound held a man's bones, a gilt-bronze crown and mostly weapons. So the guide concludes that one half is a man's tomb and the other a woman's, most likely a married couple. The guide does not say whose tomb it is. The national heritage register, writing about the tomb of King Naemul, notes that some scholars think this great mound is his. There is a twist in the story of the dig. A curator's account in the city's magazine says the original plan was to restore Tomb 98 and let visitors look inside. Its excavation was completed in 1975, but the plan was changed. The smaller Tomb 155 nearby, now called Cheonmachong, was restored and opened instead. The city's guide says most of the tombs here appear to be stone-mound wooden-chamber tombs. It also says only about twenty mounds still show above ground, while many small tombs are thought to lie hidden beneath it.

The best view of both humps is from a little distance. Stay on the path when you stop.

3. Tomb of King Michu

The tomb of the first Kim king of Silla, and the legend of soldiers wearing bamboo leaves.

Look at the large round mound behind the low wall in front of you. It is known as the tomb of King Michu, the thirteenth ruler of Silla, who reigned from 262 to 284. The national heritage register calls him the first Silla king from the Kim clan. It says he held off repeated attacks from Baekje and encouraged farming. The register gives the mound's size, twelve point four metres high and fifty-six point seven metres across. Inside, it is thought to be a stone-mound wooden-chamber tomb. In front of the mound lies a honyuseok, a flat stone where the spirit is said to rest. The wall around it was built to protect the whole tomb. The Samguk sagi, a history of the Three Kingdoms, tells a legend about this tomb. In 297, in the reign of King Yurye, people from a state called Iseoguk attacked the capital, and Silla was in danger. Then soldiers appeared with bamboo leaves tucked behind their ears. They drove off the enemy and vanished. Afterwards, someone saw bamboo leaves heaped in front of King Michu's tomb. People said the king was still helping Silla after his death. So the tomb also came to be called Jukjangneung, the tomb of the bamboo leaves. A short way in front of the tomb stands a shrine called Sunghyejeon. The national heritage register records its destruction in the Japanese invasion of 1592. The city's guide says it was moved to its present site in 1794. The city's guide says it now holds the tablets of three Silla kings. They are Michu, the first Kim king, Munmu, who completed the unification of the Three Kingdoms, and Gyeongsun, the last king of Silla.

The wall marks a protected royal tomb. Please do not step over it.

4. Cheomseongdae

A bottle-shaped stone tower for watching the sky, from the reign of Queen Seondeok.

Look at the stone tower in front of you, shaped like a bottle. This is Cheomseongdae. The national heritage register describes it as an observatory of the Silla period, used to watch the movements of the heavens. It is about nine metres tall, and it was designated a National Treasure in 1962. Look at how it is put together. A base supports a round body of twenty-seven courses of curved stones. On top sits a frame of long stones laid in the shape of the Chinese character for a well. Now find the square opening on the south-east side, about halfway up. The register says the inside is filled with rough stones up to that opening, and hollow above it, right to the top. Long stones also push through the wall at two other levels, and the register suggests they were placed to rest ladders on, inside. An old record says a person went up through the middle. So the register pictures it like this. An observer leaned a ladder against the outside, climbed in through the window, and used more ladders inside to reach the top. Why build it? The register explains that the movement of the sky set the farming calendar. Watching the heavens was also a way to read good and bad fortune for the state. The tower is thought to date from the reign of Queen Seondeok, from 632 to 647. The register calls it the oldest observatory in the East. The city's tourism guide reads meanings into its numbers. It counts about three hundred and sixty-five stones, one for each day of the year. It links the twenty-seven courses to Queen Seondeok, the twenty-seventh ruler of Silla. It also reads the twelve courses above and the twelve below the window as the twelve months. Take these as one way of reading the tower.

The tower is fenced. You see it best from the path that circles it.

5. Gyerim Wood & the Tomb of King Naemul

The wood where legend says the founder of the Kim clan was found in a golden chest, and the tomb of a Kim king.

You are standing in Gyerim, a small wood. UNESCO describes it as the woodland which legend identifies as the birthplace of the founder of the Gyeongju Kim clan. The national heritage register says the wood was here from the founding of Silla, and was first called Sirim. The legend goes like this. In the reign of King Talhae, the king heard a rooster crowing in Sirim, west of his royal seat, and saw the wood filled with light. At dawn he sent a servant. The servant found a small golden chest hanging from a branch, with a white rooster crying beneath it. The king came himself and opened the chest. Inside was a bright-looking baby boy. The king took him as a child sent from heaven and made him crown prince. He named him Alji, a word for a baby. Because the boy came out of a golden chest, he gave him the surname Kim, the word for gold. After that the wood was called Gyerim, the rooster wood. Alji never became king. The register says he gave up the throne to Pasa. But a later descendant of his, Michu, did become king. A stone monument to Alji's birth, set up in 1803, still stands in the wood. Now look for the round mound beside the wood. This mound is traditionally identified as the tomb of King Naemul, the seventeenth ruler, who reigned from 356 to 402. The register describes him as the second king from the Kim clan. He is known by the royal title maripgan. The mound is five point three metres high and twenty-two metres across, ringed with natural stones. The register also notes another view, that Naemul's tomb is really the great double mound in Daereungwon.

Gyerim is still treated as a sacred place. Keep your voice low in the wood.

6. Gyochon: the Choi Family House & Gyeongju Hyanggyo

The Choi family's house and principles of sharing wealth, beside a Confucian school on the site associated with Silla's national academy.

Look at the gate in front of you. For the gate of a great house, it is low and plain. Behind it is the head house of the Choi family of Gyeongju, known for generations as the house of the rich Choi. It is a National Folklore Heritage site, registered today as Gyeongju Choi Bujadaek. The national heritage register says the house is believed to have been built around 1700, though the exact date is not known. The city's guide says it had ninety-nine bays when it was built. It also passes on a story about the ground. The family is said to have cut the site at least three ja, a little under a metre, lower than the Confucian school next door, so as not to stand above it. What made the family famous was the way it handled its wealth. The city's guide says the Choi family kept a fortune of ten thousand seok of rice for twelve generations. It produced holders of the jinsa degree for nine generations. The guide records the rules handed down in the family. Do not take office above jinsa. Do not gather more than ten thousand seok. Treat passing travellers well. Do not buy up other people's land in a famine year. Let no one within a hundred li starve. The guide names the twelfth head of the family, Choi Jun, as an independence activist. The register adds that this ground is said to be the site of Yoseokgung, a Silla palace. The walls beside the house belong to Gyeongju Hyanggyo, the Confucian school that gave this village its name. Gyochon means the school village. The register says Silla's national academy was established on this site in 682. The later Confucian school burned in the Imjin War. Its shrine hall was rebuilt in 1600 and its lecture hall in 1614. The shrine hall is now a designated Treasure.

People still live and work in this village. Keep the lane clear and do not photograph into open doors.

7. Woljeonggyo Bridge

A bridge recorded in 760, now reconstructed with a tiled roof after archaeological research, with restoration completed in 2018.

Look toward the gate tower and the long roofed bridge across the stream. This is Woljeonggyo. The stream is the Muncheon, also called the Namcheon. What you see is a reconstruction, finished in 2018. But it rests on a real record and real remains. The Samguk sagi says that in 760, in the reign of King Gyeongdeok, two bridges named Woljeong and Chunyang were built over the Muncheon, south of the palace. The city's guide says this bridge was lost in the Joseon period. Its foundations stayed in the riverbed. The national heritage register describes what excavation found. There were stone abutments at both banks, wing walls, and four boat-shaped piers between them. From these, the bridge is estimated to have been about sixty metres long. Burnt timber and roof tile fragments turned up between the piers. These finds suggest that the bridge had a tiled roof, like a long pavilion. The site of the other bridge, Chunyang, also survives in the riverbed, to the east, toward the national museum. The register says the bridge was rebuilt between 2008 and 2018, after research into its form and structure. The city's guide adds that the bridge itself was finished first, in 2013, and the gate towers at each end were built after it. In Silla times, the register suggests, this crossing was an important road. It joined the land north and south of the stream. The city's guide links this area to the story of Wonhyo and Princess Yoseok. Wonhyo lived in the seventh century, before the bridge-building record of 760. This is a local legend, not evidence that he crossed the bridge recorded in that year.

The bridge is a footpath. Keep to one side when you stop, so others can pass.

8. Wolseong Palace Site & the Stone Ice-house

The half-moon fortress that held Silla's palace, still being excavated, and a Joseon ice store on its wall.

You are on top of Wolseong, the fortress that held the royal palace of Silla. Look at the long, low stone structure in front of you, with a doorway at its south end. That is the Seokbinggo, a stone ice-house. It is far younger than the fortress it sits on. Start with the fortress. The national heritage register says it was named for its shape, like a half moon, so it is also called Banwolseong, the half-moon fortress. According to the Samguk sagi, King Pasa built it in 101 and moved his seat here from Geumseong. It stayed the palace of the Silla kings. Under King Munmu it was enlarged, taking in the grounds of Anapji, Imhaejeon and Cheomseongdae. Its east, west and north sides were walled with earth and stone. The south side used the natural cliff. A moat ran along the foot of the walls. UNESCO lists Wolseong as the ruined palace site of the Wolseong Belt. Almost nothing of the palace stands now. The city's guide says that in December 2014, the Gyeongju National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage began excavating the inside and the moat. The city's guide reports the discovery of seventeen building sites from late Unified Silla, ink stones and wooden tablets with writing. Animal bones and plant seeds came out of the moat. The city's guide says the two skeletons found in the west wall may relate to a rite performed when it was built. Now the ice-house. Its stone tablet and the stone over its doorway say that in 1738, under King Yeongjo, a man named Jo Myeong-gyeom rebuilt a wooden ice store in stone. It was later moved here from a site to the west. The register describes steps descending from the south entrance. The floor slopes, so that water can drain away. The roof is a half circle, with three vents to let air through.

Parts of Wolseong are active excavation sites behind fences. Please keep to the open paths.

9. Donggung Palace & Wolji Pond

Silla's detached palace and its pond, dug in 674 and long known as Anapji.

In front of you is the entrance to Donggung Palace and Wolji Pond. For a long time the place was known as Anapji, the pond of geese and ducks. The city's guide says that name was given in the Joseon period, when the site lay in ruins and flocks of geese and ducks gathered on the water. In 2011 it took back its proper name, Donggung and Wolji. The national heritage register says this was a detached palace of the Silla court. The prince lived here, and feasts were held here for national celebrations and important guests. In 931, after an attack by Gyeon Hwon, King Gyeongsun of Silla invited Wang Geon here and held a banquet, pleading for help in his danger. The national heritage register says King Munmu had a great pond dug here in 674. Three islands were made in it, and twelve hills along its north and east sides. The city's guide adds, from the Samguk sagi, that the Eastern Palace was built in 679. The pond and halls described here are inside the paid grounds. The city's guide gives the pond's size, about two hundred metres from east to west and a hundred and eighty from north to south. Its south-west banks are straight, but its north-east banks curve in and out. So you cannot see the whole pond from any one spot. The guide says this made it feel like a sea with no end. The hall called Imhaejeon, whose name means the hall overlooking the sea, is thought to have stood on the west bank. The register says the site was badly damaged under Japanese rule, when a railway was laid through it. In 1980, three of the buildings on the west bank were rebuilt, and the pond was restored. A brick found here bears a date matching the year 680. If you go in, the rebuilt halls stand along the water.

The pond grounds are a paid site. The entrance plaza is open to everyone.