Najeong Well

About 1 km southeast of Oreung in Gyeongju, a lawn ringed by pine trees marks Najeong, the well where Bak Hyeokgeose, founder of Silla, is said to have hatched from an egg. For centuries it was regarded as a purely legendary spot. Excavations in the 2000s, however, uncovered a real well and the footings of a large octagonal building, showing that Silla treated this as a sacred place honouring the birth of the kingdom.

The white horse and the red egg

Before Silla, the Gyeongju area was said to be ruled by six village chiefs. One day Sobeoldori, chief of Goheo village, saw a white horse kneeling and crying beside a well at the foot of Yangsan hill; going closer, he found a large egg. A boy hatched from it, and the people raised him as a child sent from heaven. Because the egg looked like a gourd (bak), he was given the surname Bak, and the name Hyeokgeose, "one who brightens the world". At 13, in 57 BC, he became king and called the country Seorabeol.

From legend to archaeology

Excavation began in 2002, after the wall around the stele pavilion collapsed, and four seasons of digging followed until 2005. They revealed an oval well pit 4.3 m long and 2.5 m wide, surrounded by a ditch and traces of a wooden fence. Around the turn of the millennium the well was protected as a sacred place; around AD 500 it was filled in and an octagonal building about 8 m per side and some 20 m across was built over it. This fits the historical record that a sacred shrine (singung) was established at Naeul in 487. Roof tiles also point to a rebuilding in 679.

What the name means

The excavations produced some 90 roof tiles stamped with the character 生 ("birth"). Some scholars therefore read the well's name as "the well of birth", with Naeul in the old records simply a phonetic spelling of it. Others interpret na as the central town of the state and eul as an old Silla word for well, making Naeul or Najeong "the well of the realm". Either way, Silla clearly regarded this as the place where the kingdom began.

What you can see today

• The founder's memorial stele: erected in 1802 in honour of Bak Hyeokgeose, it stands at one side of the lawn.
• The excavated site: the positions of the well and the octagonal building are laid out on the grass with an information board. Use the plan on the board to trace the outline.
• The pine grove: the pines around the site make it look like an island in the middle of the fields west of Namsan.

Combining it with nearby sites

Najeong was designated a Historic Site in 1975. Within walking distance are Oreung, the tombs traditionally linked to Bak Hyeokgeose and his queen, and Poseokjeong, where Silla kings are said to have held banquets, so it is easy to string together the Silla sites on the western foot of Namsan. Other remains of the Silla capital, such as the Changnimsa temple site, are scattered nearby.

Tripto tips

• Visiting: an open-air site with no admission fee. The only shade is under the pines, so take a hat in summer.
• Time needed: 20–30 minutes for Najeong alone, about 2 hours if you walk on to Oreung and Poseokjeong.
• Getting there: the address is 700-1 Tap-dong, Gyeongju. It is a little over 1 km on foot southeast of Oreung and an easy taxi or bike ride from central Gyeongju.
• Good to know: nothing stands above ground here, so the visit is much more rewarding if you know the legend and the excavation story before you go.