Tomb of King Muryeong and Royal Tombs, Gongju

Seven tombs of the Ungjin-period Baekje kings lie on this south-facing slope. Six of them were opened under Japanese rule and found already emptied. The seventh was not known to exist. In 1971, workers digging a drainage trench beside tombs five and six struck brick. What they had found was the tomb of King Muryeong, sealed since 525 and untouched. Inside was a stone tablet giving the king's name, his title and the dates — making this the only royal tomb of the Three Kingdoms period whose occupant is securely identified. Everything else from the era is attributed by inference. The tombs divide by construction. Numbers one to five are stone chambers with the passage set against the east wall; Muryeong's is built of brick, in a manner that came from southern China. The small differences between otherwise identical tombs are read as a sequence in time.

Original Text

Where it is

Region

Gongju, Chungnam

Designation

Historic Site · 사적