Wolseong Palace Site, Gyeongju

Wolseong, 'the moon fortress', is a low crescent of hill with a river on one side and a moat on the other. Silla's kings ruled from a palace on top of it from the second century until the kingdom ended in 935, longer than any dynasty in Korea has held one seat since. Almost none of it is above ground. What you walk on is the rampart of earth and stone, about two kilometres round, with the palace site inside it as an open field. Excavation began in earnest only in 2014 and keeps changing the story: in 2017 the skeletons of two adults were found laid under the west gate's foundations, the first evidence that Silla sacrificed people when it built, and wooden tablets with ink writing have come up out of the moat. The one building inside is Joseon, not Silla — a stone ice house of 1741, half sunk into the ground, that kept winter ice for the summer. Donggung and the Wolji pond, the crown prince's palace, are just across the road.

Original Text

Where it is

Region

Gyeongju, Gyeongbuk

Designation

Historic Site · 사적