1 · POSITION
Gyeongju was the capital of Silla, which ruled the Korean peninsula for almost a thousand years, from 57 BC to AD 935. UNESCO inscribed its historic areas in 2000: five belts of temples, palaces, tombs and fortress. The register holds it as the eastern end of the overland and maritime exchange it follows from the Mediterranean. [1]
2 · THE TOMBS
In Tumuli Park the royal tombs, most of them domed, held double wooden coffins and grave goods of gold, glass and fine ceramics; one early tomb gave up a painting of a winged horse on birch bark. The glass is the clearest sign that this capital at the end of the road received what the road carried. [1]
3 · THE TEMPLES
Hwangnyongsa, built under King Jinheung, was the largest temple ever built in Korea, about 72,500 square metres, and in 645 gained a nine-storey pagoda some eighty metres high. Mount Namsan holds the sculptures, reliefs and pagodas of seven to ten centuries of Silla Buddhism. [1]
4 · THE FIVE BELTS
The inscription covers Mount Namsan, Wolseong, Tumuli Park, Hwangnyongsa and the Sanseong fortress — some 2,880 hectares. The register holds the Donggung palace and Wolji pond under their own code. [1]
5 · ⚑ CANDOUR
⚑ Checked on 22 October 2026. Central Asian and Mediterranean objects in the tombs are confirmed — Roman glass from Hwangnam Daechong among them. That Chinese envoys called Silla the country of gold was not found, and the note no longer says it. [1–2]
Sources & Further Reading
Sources checked 22 October 2026.