Nogosanseong Fortress

Nogosanseong Fortress stands at the summit of a ridge 276 m above sea level (200 m in relative height) on the eastern side of the Gyejoksan mountain range within the Daejeon basin, commanding a clear view of the course of the Geumgang River. The main stream and tributaries of the Geumgang are now submerged beneath the waters of the Daecheong Dam, but from this fortress it was once possible to overlook the route linking the Sintanjin area to the west with the Jusan-dong and Okcheon areas to the east of Daejeon's Dong District, and to monitor the waterway along the Geumgang to the east. To the south-west, the interior of Gyejoksanseong Fortress can be seen in full, giving the site great strategic value in defending the eastern approach to Gyejoksanseong. The summit on which Nogosanseong stands forms a long, narrow ridge running north to south, no more than 20–30 m wide. There is a peak at each end, north and south, with a low, narrow saddle between them, giving the ridge the shape of a peanut shell. The fortress occupies only the southern of the two peaks. The wall is estimated to have been about 200 m long. On the west, where the terrain forms a sheer cliff, natural rock outcrops were used as the wall in many places, with the gaps between outcrops sometimes supplemented with stone masonry. On the south and east, a stone wall was built along the edge of the summit using the naetak technique, in which the wall is banked up with earth on the inner side. Some trace of the north wall survives at the point where the southern peak ends. No gate site is clearly identifiable, but a likely south gate site lies at the western end of the south wall. The wall was built by laying rectangular-faced stones in parallel courses, upper and lower. This differs from the typical Baekje fortress wall, which used square-faced stones, and instead matches the stone-laying technique of Silla fortresses such as Gyejoksanseong and Samnyeonsanseong Fortress in Boeun. Seongchisanseong Fortress, 1.1 km to the north as the crow flies, and Ihyeon-dong Sanseong Fortress, about 3 km to the south-west, show the same stone-laying technique. All of these fortresses command the flanking and rear approaches to Gyejoksanseong, and are thought to have functioned as auxiliary forts or outposts supporting it. No roof-tile fragments have been found within the fortress, but pottery sherds have been collected, identified as fragments of flattened jars or flattened bottles from the late Silla to early Goryeo transition period. This suggests that the fortress, built during the Three Kingdoms period, continued to be used into that later period as well — a pattern also seen at Gyejoksanseong, which once again points to the close relationship between the two fortresses.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Dong-gu, Daejeon

Designation

Provincial Monument · 시도기념물