Gyeongju: The Korean Valley of the Kings

If I had to have the same view for all of eternity, I wouldn't mind this one. This is Gyeongju, the capital of the Silla Dynasty and home to many well preserved spiritual and governmental sites. The modern city is in pretty much the same spot as it was first built, situated in a beautiful green valley on the Hyeongsan river.

Many sites have been well-preserved or discovered and restored, and most have been made available to the public for small entrance fees. The most common sites are tombs, which would have been for royalty or people of high rank and with the means to build them. They look like huge, perfectly shaped hills and are built up with stone of various sizes and soil, with the actual tomb buried at the bottom. We saw a cross section of one mound, and the precision with which the stones were placed was impressive. It's no wonder these tombs have remained unchanged for so many centuries.
Many of them are unmarked and unadorned, which I imagine is because the accompanying statues and markers have been lost or taken over the years. But I don't know very much about anything so don't take my word for it. I think also the amount of outer adornment had to do with how much importance a person had, or how much money they had to decorate. This is the tomb of General Kim Yushin, who was one of the driving forces behind the unification of the three separate kingdoms on the Korean peninsula in the 7th century.

The actual burial mound was pretty small, but it came with some sweet decoration. The wall around it is spaced with reliefs of the twelve animals of the Asian Zodiac. In the lower left corner you can see a little bit of the ox (that's me!).

This is at Oreung, a burial site for several early Silla kings. They have not one, but two gates protecting their tombs.

I'm not sure how the landscaping works. In my imagination, large groups of gardeners come out at dusk with grass clippers and go over each mound carefully. Or someone just goes crazy on a riding mower.

We saw a lot of these tombs, and you could say that once you've seen one you've seen them all. There's only so much variation on the grassy mound theme besides height or steepness and ornamentation. But there was something really stirring about staring up the slopes of these ancient markers. It might have been the natural beauty of their surroundings, or the warmth and sunshine, or it might have been the thought of all the care and attention that goes into their upkeep. Their simplicity is perfect, melting into the landscape around them and quietly reminding visitors of the rich history that is often overshadowed by the bustle of Korea's modern cities.

They also look like they'd be really fun to roll down.