Of all the places on the list of world heritage, the Mausoleum of King Kongmin must be one of the hardest to reach on two wheels, because it lies in North Korea, in the hills west of the old city of Kaesong.
The tomb itself is a beautiful thing, by the accounts of the people who have seen it. King Gongmin ruled the Goryeo kingdom in the fourteenth century, a reformer who tried to loosen the grip of the Mongol Yuan dynasty on his country. He married a Mongol princess, Queen Noguk, and when she died in childbirth he was devastated, spending years building her tomb and then his own beside it. The two mounds stand side by side on a hillside, guarded by stone figures of officials and animals, with a view across a valley that was chosen with great care according to the principles of geomancy. Gongmin was assassinated in 1374, and Goryeo did not long outlast him.
Kaesong was the capital of Goryeo for nearly five centuries, and the monuments in and around it were inscribed together by UNESCO in 2013. The kingdom gave Korea its name in Western languages and is remembered for its celadon ceramics, with their soft blue-green glaze, and for early metal movable type.
In practical terms, this is not a ride anyone can plan at present. Access to North Korea for foreigners has been tightly restricted and only possible on organised tours at the best of times, and the border region near Kaesong is heavily militarised. From the southern side, the observatories along the demilitarised zone, near Paju and on Ganghwa island, let you look across the Han estuary toward the north, and the riding along the coastal roads of Ganghwa is easy and quiet. Ganghwa town, about twenty-five kilometres from the tomb as the crow flies, has fuel, food and a market famous for ginseng and pickled fish.
It is worth knowing the place exists, a love story carved in stone just out of reach, and thinking about the line that keeps it there.