Tomb of King Talhae, Gyeongju

This is the tomb of King Talhae of Silla (r. 57–80), surrounded by a pine forest. According to the Samguk sagi, at a point 1,000 li north-east of the land of Wa, the queen of the kingdom of Dapana gave birth to an egg; considering this inauspicious, she placed it in a chest with treasures and set it adrift on the sea. It first reached Geumgwan-guk (Gimhae), but the people there found it strange and no one took it in; it then drifted to Ajinpo in Jinhan, where an old woman took the child in and raised him. Because a magpie followed the chest, crying, as it floated, the character 鵲 (jak, 'magpie') was used, and with the bird radical 鳥 (jo) removed, the remaining character 昔 (seok) became his surname; and because the child freed himself by opening the chest, he was named Talhae (脫解, 'to undo and free'). King Talhae became the founding ancestor of the Seok clan and the first Silla king of the Seok surname. The tomb is a round earthen mound, 4.5 m high and 14.3 m in diameter, with no surrounding facilities, and from its external form the interior is presumed to be a stone-chamber tomb with a corridor entrance (hoenghyeolsik seoksilmyo). (The name was changed from 'Tomb of King Talhae of Silla' to 'Tomb of King Talhae, Gyeongju', as officially announced on 28 July 2011.)

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Gyeongju, Gyeongbuk

Designation

Historic Site · 사적