Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Old towns & squares
경주시
Behind a wall you can see the grassy mounds of Silla royal tombs, and along the street in front of them runs a line of cafés, bakeries and photo studios under hanok tile roofs. Hwangnidan-gil follows Poseok-ro through Hwangnam-dong in Gyeo…
Historic sites & memorials
고령군
Along the ridge of Jusan, the hill behind Daegaya-eup in Goryeong, rows of round burial mounds rise one after another. The Goryeong Jisan-dong Tumuli are the tombs of the kings and ruling class of Daegaya, one of the states of the Gaya con…
Churches & monasteries
구미시
Halfway up Naengsan in Haepyeong-myeon, Gumi, Dorisa is said to have been founded by Ado, the Goguryeo monk who first brought Buddhism to Silla. Its small grounds hold a lot of stories: the legend behind its name, a stone pagoda that looks…
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…
Museums
경주시
If you want to understand Silla before visiting Gyeongju's tombs and temple sites, start here. Gyeongju National Museum holds the largest collection of artefacts from Silla (57 BC–AD 935), a kingdom that lasted almost a thousand years with…
Mountains & peaks
구미시
Geumosan is a 976-metre rocky mountain rising right behind the city of Gumi, and in 1970 it became Korea's first provincial park. A cable car takes you halfway up, where a waterfall, a cliff-face cave and a Goryeo-era rock-carved Buddha fo…
Churches & monasteries
김천시
On the eastern slopes of Hwangaksan, Jikjisa is the head temple of the Jogye Order's 8th district, overseeing 54 branch temples across north-western North Gyeongsang. Its name means "pointing straight with a finger", and there is plenty to…
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
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,…
National parks
문경시
Its name is usually explained as "the pass even birds find hard to cross". Mungyeong Saejae was the fastest route between the southeastern Yeongnam region and the Joseon capital, Hanyang (Seoul). With three gates, the sites of old inns and…
Churches & monasteries
포항시
Bogyeongsa sits at the foot of Naeyeonsan Mountain in the north of Pohang and is the largest temple in the city. Its name means "temple of the precious mirror", and it comes from a founding legend about a mirror buried in the ground. From…
Churches & monasteries
안동시
Bongjeongsa sits on the slopes of Cheondeungsan in Andong, North Gyeongsang, and is home to Geungnakjeon, regarded as the oldest wooden building in Korea. Both Geungnakjeon and the main hall, Daeungjeon, are National Treasures, and in 2018…
Mountains & peaks
봉화군
Twelve rock peaks rise like a folding screen above the upper Nakdonggang River at Cheongnyangsan, long nicknamed "the little Diamond Mountains". At 870 m it is not high, but every peak is ringed with cliffs, so the scenery changes constant…
Churches & monasteries
경주시
Bulguksa is the best-known temple of the Silla kingdom, set on the western slopes of Tohamsan in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province. Its wooden halls stand on tall stone terraces, so while fires replaced the buildings several times, the 8…
Churches & monasteries
경주시
Seokguram is a hermitage belonging to Bulguksa temple, halfway up Tohamsan mountain in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province. Its artificial grotto, assembled stone by stone from granite in the Unified Silla period, houses a seated Buddha. T…
Historic sites & memorials
안동시
Dosan Seowon brings together the small school where Toegye Yi Hwang, Joseon's most celebrated Confucian scholar, taught his students and the academy his followers built after his death. It sits on a hillside above the Nakdonggang River in…
Churches & monasteries
안동시
Where the Nakdong River makes a wide bend beneath the sheer cliffs of Byeongsan, Byeongsan Seowon is often called the masterpiece of Joseon-era academy architecture. Step through the gate and climb into Mandaeru, a seven-bay pavilion, and…
Historic sites & memorials
안동시
Imcheonggak is the head house of the Goseong Yi clan, set on the slope of Yeongnamsan on the eastern edge of Andong and looking out over the Nakdong River. A family home from the middle of the Joseon period surviving to this day would be r…
Old towns & squares
안동시
Hahoe Folk Village is a traditional clan village in Andong, wrapped in an S-shaped bend of the Nakdong River – the name itself means "river turning back". The Pungsan Ryu clan has lived here for almost 600 years, tiled-roof mansions stand…
Churches & monasteries
영주시
Buseoksa was founded on the slopes of Bonghwangsan in 676 by the Silla monk Uisang, and it is home to Muryangsujeon, the best-known example of Goryeo-era wooden architecture in Korea. Instead of levelling the hillside, the builders raised…
Historic sites & memorials
영주시
At the foot of Sobaeksan, the clear Jukgyecheon stream runs through a grove of tall pines, and beside it stands a cluster of low tiled buildings. Sosu Seowon in Yeongju was the first seowon, or private Confucian academy, in Korea, and the…
Churches & monasteries
영천시
On the eastern slopes of Palgongsan, in a quiet valley in Yeongcheon's Cheongtong-myeon, stands a timber building from the Goryeo dynasty. Yeongsanjeon, a National Treasure, was built in 1375, and inside it 526 stone arhats, each with a di…
Churches & monasteries
영천시
East of Palgongsan, a wooded road in Cheongtong-myeon, Yeongcheon, leads past the sound of a clear stream to a large temple. Eunhaesa is, together with Donghwasa, the best-known temple on Palgongsan, and as the head temple of the 10th dist…
Churches & monasteries
포항시
On the eastern slopes of Unjesan in Pohang, Oeosa sits right at the water's edge of a mountain reservoir. Tradition dates its founding to the reign of King Jinpyeong of Silla, and its name, meaning "my fish temple", comes from a story in t…