Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Historic sites & memorials
구리시
Donggureung in Guri, Gyeonggi Province, is the largest group of royal tombs of the Joseon dynasty. The name means "nine tombs east of the capital": nine tombs, including Geonwolleung of King Taejo, the founder of Joseon, hold 17 kings and…
Historic sites & memorials
구미시
On 14 November 1917, a boy was born in a small thatched farmhouse in Sangmo-dong, Gumi, North Gyeongsang Province. He was Park Chung-hee, who would serve as South Korea's president from 1963 to 1979. He lived here while attending primary s…
Historic sites & memorials
서울특별시
In Suyu-dong in Seoul's Gangbuk district, with the peaks of Bukhansan rising behind it, lie the victims of the April Revolution of 1960. This national cemetery honours the students and citizens who took to the streets against the rigged el…
Historic sites & memorials
광주
The May 18th National Cemetery is the resting place of those who died in, or took part in, the May 18 Democratic Uprising in Gwangju in 1980. On a gentle hillside in Unjeong-dong, Buk-gu, the graves lead up to a memorial tower, a hall of p…
Historic sites & memorials
대전광역시
Daejeon National Cemetery is the resting place of people who gave their lives for, or served, the nation: around 150,000 are interred on grounds of about 3.3 km² (one million pyeong, a traditional Korean unit). Independence activists, fall…
Historic sites & memorials
서울특별시
Seoul National Cemetery spreads over a hillside in Dongjak, just south of the Han River. Independence activists, fallen soldiers and four former presidents are buried here. Paths and a stream run between seemingly endless rows of white hea…
Historic sites & memorials
군산시
Tucked into a residential lane on the southwestern edge of old Gunsan stands a two-storey timber mansion built for a Japanese landowner during the colonial era, still in almost original condition. Also known as the Hirotsu House, the Japan…
Historic sites & memorials
양주시
This hillside burial ground in Jangheung, Yangju, is the resting place of Gwon Yul (1537–1599), the commander who defeated a Japanese army at Haengjusanseong Fortress during the Imjin War. The general's mound, the graves of his two wives a…
Historic sites & memorials
김포시
Gimpo Jangneung is the Joseon royal tomb where King Injo's father, Wonjong, and mother, Queen Inheon, lie side by side. Wonjong never sat on the throne in his lifetime; he was made a king only after his son took power, and his grave was ra…
Historic sites & memorials
김해시
A low hill in the middle of Gimhae is the burial ground of the kings and elite of Geumgwan Gaya. Tombs were built here for over 400 years, from the 1st to the 5th century, so the site traces how the small polity of Guya grew into Geumgwan…
Historic sites & memorials
김해시
In the middle of Gimhae, a round grassy mound sits among lawns and pine woods. The Royal Tomb of King Suro is traditionally identified as the grave of King Suro, founder of Geumgwan Gaya (Garak), one of the Gaya confederacy states. As the…
Historic sites & memorials
김해시
On a pine-covered hill in Gusan-dong, Gimhae, a single round burial mound sits quietly. This is said to be the tomb of Heo Hwang-ok, queen of King Suro, founder of the Geumgwan Gaya kingdom. The Samguk yusa records that she was a princess…
Historic sites & memorials
나주시
Naju Geumseonggwan was the gaeksa, the official guesthouse, of Joseon-era Naju. A gaeksa held tablets symbolising the king and lodged officials and envoys visiting the town, and Geumseonggwan's main hall is counted as the largest of all su…
Historic sites & memorials
서울특별시
On the way to Seoul National University, at the foot of Gwanaksan, there is a park with a red-pillared shrine. Nakseongdae means "the place where a star fell": legend says a great star dropped here when Gang Gam-chan (948–1031), the celebr…
Historic sites & memorials
남양주시
Sareung in Namyangju is the tomb of Queen Jeongsun (1440–1521), consort of Danjong, the sixth king of Joseon. She became queen as a teenager, lost her husband and then lived alone for more than 60 years, which gives this small tomb one of…
Historic sites & memorials
남양주시
The Hongneung and Yureung Royal Tombs in Geumgok-dong, Namyangju, are the last two tombs built in the long line of Joseon royal tombs. Because they hold Emperor Gojong and Emperor Sunjong of the Korean Empire, they follow the model of Ming…
Historic sites & memorials
논산시
Donam Seowon was founded to honour Kim Jang-saeng (1548–1631), the great Joseon scholar of Confucian ritual. It is one of the few academies that survived the 1871 decree abolishing seowon, and in 2019 it was inscribed on the UNESCO World H…
Historic sites & memorials
경주시
In the middle of Gyeongju, huge grass-covered hills rise between the streets. They are not hills at all but the tombs of Silla kings, queens and nobles, built some 1,500 years ago. At Daereungwon you walk along paths between the mounds, an…
Historic sites & memorials
대전광역시
In the middle of an apartment district in Songchon-dong, Daejeon, a graceful scholar's pavilion sits in a lawn-covered park. Dongchundang was the study hall of Song Jun-gil, a scholar who served King Hyojong as inspector-general and minist…
Historic sites & memorials
서울특별시
A granite arch that looks like a small Arc de Triomphe stands in a park in Seodaemun-gu, Seoul. Independence Gate (Dongnimmun) was completed in 1898 with money donated by ordinary citizens, on the spot where Yeongeunmun, the gate for welco…
Historic sites & memorials
담양군
On a low rise at the foot of Jebongsan in Damyang, a small pavilion open on all sides looks out over the fields. This is Myeonangjeong, built by the mid-Joseon official Song Sun after he left office. Scholars such as Yi Hwang (Toegye) visi…
Historic sites & memorials
안동시
In Mukgye-ri, in Gilan-myeon well to the southeast of Andong, a Confucian academy and a clan head house survive side by side in one village. Mukgye Seowon honours Kim Gye-haeng (pen name Bobaekdang), famed for his integrity as an official,…
Historic sites & memorials
밀양시
Spreading its wings on a cliff above a bend of the Miryang River, Yeongnamnu is counted with Chokseongnu in Jinju and Bubyeongnu in Pyongyang as one of Korea's three great pavilions. It belonged to the government guesthouse where distingui…
Historic sites & memorials
서울특별시
Every year at midnight on 31 December, the bell pavilion that appears on Korean television screens is Bosingak. This two-storey pavilion stands at the main crossroads of Jongno in central Seoul, and during the Joseon dynasty its bell signa…