Forest of Maple Trees at Munsusa Temple, Gochang

The Forest of Maple Trees at Munsusa Temple, Gochang, is a forest in which about 500 maple trees, estimated to be between 100 and 400 years old, grow naturally along both sides of roughly 80 m of the approach road running from the entrance of Munsusan Mountain to the entrance of Munsusa Temple, located halfway up the mountain. The maples have a diameter at breast height of 30–80 cm and a height of about 10–15 m; a notable feature is that many of the old trees have a girth at breast height of 2 m or more, reaching up to 2.96 m. Within the 120,065㎡ designated area, other old trees grow alongside the maples, including mono maple, Konara oak, loose-flower hornbeam, sawtooth oak, hackberry and zelkova, while the subcanopy and shrub layers include Japanese tallowtree, kousa dogwood, Manchurian ash, fragrant snowbell, dwarf ash, bat-leaf alangium, Japanese beautyberry, Sichuan pepper, Korean bladdernut and privet, together with a broad distribution of dwarf bamboo thickets. The forest has been protected as the temple forest of Munsusa, built in 644, the fourth year of King Uija of Baekje, and survives today as one of Korea's representative maple forests, of great value. Blending well with the terrain of Munsusan Mountain, it is a scenic spot visited by many tourists in autumn, and for its outstanding scenic value it is designated and protected as a natural monument.

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Where it is

Region

Gochang, Jeonbuk

Designation

Natural Monument · 천연기념물