Twin Tombs, Iksan

The twin tombs stand in a pine wood on the plain of Iksan, the city King Mu of Baekje tried to make a second capital in the early seventh century. He built the vast temple of Mireuksa here, and a palace, and by tradition he and his queen — Seonhwa, a Silla princess in the story the folk song tells — were buried in these two mounds, the larger for him and the smaller for her. The larger tomb was opened in 1917, and a coffin of Japanese umbrella pine, the wood Baekje used for royalty, was taken away; the bones were left in a box in storage and forgotten. In 2018 they were found and examined: a man of sixty to seventy, tall for his time, who died in the early 600s. King Mu died in 641 at about that age. It is not proof, but it is as close as the seventh century usually comes. The tombs are of the Sabi-period type, a stone chamber entered by a corridor, and are closed. Mireuksa and its stone pagoda, the largest in Korea, are ten minutes away by car.

Original Text

Where it is

Region

Iksan, Jeonbuk

Designation

Historic Site · 사적