Gyeongju Historic Areas and Songhak-dong Tumuli

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Gyeongju Historic Areas

   For nearly a thousand years, until the tenth century, Gyeongju was the capital of the kingdom of Silla, and the whole city is a museum with traffic lights. Round the modern centre the old kingdom lies in plain sight: great grass-covered burial mounds in a park in the middle of town, the pond of Anapji where the court held feasts, the stone observatory of Cheomseongdae, one of the oldest of its kind in East Asia, and the forested hills of Namsan scattered with rock-carved Buddhas. UNESCO listed these areas together in 2000, and the pieces are spread around town rather than gathered in one compound.

   Read the complete Gyeongju Historic Areas write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Gyeongju Historic Areas is where the day begins. Next is Gaya Tumuli.

2. 2. Gaya Tumuli

   Right in the middle of Gimhae, a busy city just west of Busan, a low ridge of grassy mounds rises between apartment blocks and roads. These are the Daeseong-dong tumuli, the burial ground of the rulers of Geumgwan Gaya, one of the small kingdoms of the Gaya confederacy that flourished in the south of the Korean peninsula from the first centuries AD until it was absorbed by Silla in the sixth century. In 2023 a group of Gaya burial sites, including these, was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list.

   Read the complete Gaya Tumuli write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Gaya Tumuli comes up about 90 km into the recorded legs. Next is Songhak-dong Tumuli.

3. 3. Songhak-dong Tumuli

   The little port town of Goseong, on the south coast of Korea, is best known to many Koreans for dinosaur footprints, but the green mounds on a ridge above the sea tell an older story. The Songhak-dong tumuli are burial mounds of the Gaya confederacy, a group of small city-states that flourished in the south of the Korean peninsula alongside the better-known kingdoms of Baekje, Goguryeo and Silla, and that were gradually absorbed by Silla in the sixth century. Goseong was the centre of one of these states, usually called Sogaya, and the big round mounds here, laid out in a line above the bay, were the graves of its rulers.

   Read the complete Songhak-dong Tumuli write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 162 km into the recorded legs you reach Songhak-dong Tumuli. Next is back through Gaya Tumuli.

4. 4. back through Gaya Tumuli

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Gaya Tumuli write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Gaya Tumuli, late in the day. Next is Gyeongju Historic Areas.

5. 5. Gyeongju Historic Areas

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Gyeongju Historic Areas write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at Gyeongju Historic Areas. That is the ride.