Tomb of King Minae, Gyeongju (Presumed)

This is the tomb of King Minae (r. 838–839), the 44th ruler of Silla, standing 3.8 m high with a diameter of 12.5 m. Although it had been looted several times, the National Gyeongju Museum excavated the tomb and its surroundings in September 1984, establishing its original scale and restoring it to its present form. The excavation revealed twelve evenly spaced holes around the outer base of the mound. Each had once held one of the twelve zodiac guardian figures, carved from soapstone with animal heads on human bodies, but at the time of investigation only four — the rat, ox, rooster and boar — were found; the rest are presumed to have been damaged and lost when the tomb's outer retaining stones were built. A bone urn was found near the tomb, its lid inscribed with the characters "the tenth year of Wonhwa (元和十年)", showing that it was made in the seventh year of King Heondeok, 815. Since the urn appears to have been buried after the tomb itself was built, the tomb is judged to have been constructed before 815 — earlier than the death of King Minae in 839, a discrepancy in dates. The site's official name was changed from Tomb of the Presumed King Minae to Tomb of King Minae, Gyeongju (Presumed), by notification on 28 July 2011.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Gyeongju, Gyeongbuk

Designation

Historic Site · 사적