Seokguram Grotto, Gyeongju
경주 석굴암 석굴 · 慶州 石窟庵 石窟
Begun in 751 by Kim Dae-seong and finished in 774, when it was called Seokbulsa. The reign it belongs to was the high point of Silla Buddhist art — Bulguksa, Dabotap and the Seokgatap all date from the same decades. It is not a cave. White granite was cut, carried up Tohamsan and assembled into one: a rectangular antechamber, a corridor, and a round main chamber, with the Buddha seated at the centre and bodhisattvas, disciples, guardians and kings carved around the walls. Forty figures were made and thirty-eight remain. The dome over the main chamber is built from some 360 flat stones locked together without mortar, a technique with no parallel anywhere. Ventilation was designed in to carry off the damp, and the twentieth-century restorations that sealed it — and the glass wall you now look through — are the reason the humidity has to be managed by machine instead.
Original Text
Visiting
- Opening hours
- 09:00-18:00 * Viewing time until 19:00 * Operating hours subject to change
- Closed
- N/A (Open all year round)
- Admission
- Free
- Parking
- Available
- Information
- +82-54-746-9933
Visitor information: Korea Tourism Organization · KOGL Type 1
Where it is
- Region
- Gyeongju, Gyeongbuk
- Designation
- National Treasure · 국보
Directions, what else is nearby, and a stamp you can claim when you get there.