Beacon Station on Maitreya Mountain, Tongyeong

A beacon station was an old means of communication that used torch flares and smoke to send urgent news. Fires were lit atop high mountains, sending signals by smoke in the daytime and by firelight at night. This beacon station stands on the second peak of Maitreya Mountain (450 m), 4 km south of Tongyeong fortress, commanding a view over the entire south coast and Tsushima Island. According to records, it was built between the late Goryeo and early Joseon periods, and relayed the signal received from the Garisan beacon in Geoje onward to the present-day Usan beacon in Tongyeong. On the southeast slope of the peak remain stone walls about 5 m high, built in three tiers, with some traces of stone walling also surviving on the north slope. At the summit, built on these walls as a platform, is a semicircular site about 7.5-7.8 m in diameter that projects out toward the sea, serving the function of a beacon station or lookout post. On a small level area behind the beacon station, the remains of a simple building site have been found, along with fragments of Unified Silla pottery bearing a folk-pattern decoration, suggesting that the site may have been used for rituals during the Unified Silla period.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Tongyeong, Gyeongnam

Designation

Provincial Monument · 시도기념물