CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
400 km from Gyeongju to Gyeongju, about 6 h 26 of riding. It goes by way of Petroglyphs along the Bangucheon Stream, Gaya Tumuli, Marisan Tumuli and Songhak-dong Tumuli. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Namsan, the southern mountain of Gyeongju, is a modest granite ridge rising just under five hundred metres above the old capital of the Silla kingdom, and it is crammed with more Buddhist art than almost any mountain in Korea. For centuries the monks and craftsmen of Silla, which unified much of the Korean peninsula in the seventh century and ruled from Gyeongju until the tenth, carved Buddhas into its boulders, built stone pagodas on its ridges and placed temples in its valleys. UNESCO took in the whole mountain when it listed Gyeongju's historic areas, and walking its trails is like moving through an open-air museum among the pines.
Read the complete Mt. Namsan Belt write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Mt. Namsan Belt is where the day begins. Next is Petroglyphs along the Bangucheon Stream.
On a cliff face above a quiet stream in the hills west of Ulsan, prehistoric people carved hundreds of images into the rock: whales, turtles, deer, tigers, boats full of men, hunters with spears and nets. The whales are the most striking, with species that can still be identified, such as right whales and humpbacks, and scenes that seem to show whaling from boats, making the Bangudae petroglyphs one of the oldest records of whaling anywhere. A little upstream, the Cheonjeon-ri petroglyphs, with geometric patterns, animals and later inscriptions from the Silla period, add another layer. In 2025, the Petroglyphs along the Bangucheon Stream were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Read the complete Petroglyphs along the Bangucheon Stream write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Petroglyphs along the Bangucheon Stream comes up about 34 km into the recorded legs. Next is 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 97 km into the recorded legs you reach Gaya Tumuli. Next is Marisan Tumuli.
In Haman county, in the south of Korea, a long ridge rises above the town of Gaya, and along its crest lies a line of large burial mounds, grassy domes that seem to ripple across the hills. These are the Malisan, or Marisan, tumuli, the royal tombs of Ara Gaya, one of the states of the Gaya confederacy that flourished in the south of the Korean peninsula from roughly the first to the sixth century. In 2023, they were listed by UNESCO together with other Gaya tumuli across the region.
Read the complete Marisan Tumuli write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Marisan Tumuli, about halfway. Next is 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Songhak-dong Tumuli sits at 207 km, about halfway. Next is back through Marisan Tumuli.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Marisan Tumuli write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Marisan Tumuli comes up about 246 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Gaya Tumuli.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Gaya Tumuli write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 303 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Gaya Tumuli. Next is back through Petroglyphs along the Bangucheon Stream.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Petroglyphs along the Bangucheon Stream write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Petroglyphs along the Bangucheon Stream, late in the day. Next is Mt. Namsan Belt, 52 km on.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Mt. Namsan Belt write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 400 km.
Mt. Namsan Belt → Petroglyphs along the Bangucheon Stream is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Petroglyphs along the Bangucheon Stream → Gaya Tumuli is 63 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Gaya Tumuli → Marisan Tumuli is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Marisan Tumuli → Songhak-dong Tumuli is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Songhak-dong Tumuli → back through Marisan Tumuli is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Marisan Tumuli → back through Gaya Tumuli is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Gaya Tumuli → back through Petroglyphs along the Bangucheon Stream is 61 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Petroglyphs along the Bangucheon Stream → Mt. Namsan Belt is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.