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.
127 km from Gyeongju to Gyeongju, about 2 h 51 of riding. On the way it passes Seokguram Grotto and Bulguksa Temple, Yangdong Cluster: Donggangseowon Confucian and back through Seokguram Grotto and Bulguksa Temple. 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 Seokguram Grotto and Bulguksa Temple.
Bulguksa sits on the lower slopes of Tohamsan, a forested mountain above Gyeongju, and it is the most famous Buddhist temple in Korea. It was largely built in the eighth century under the Silla kingdom, at a time when Gyeongju was its capital and one of the largest cities in Asia, and tradition credits the work to the minister Kim Dae-seong. Stone staircases and terraces from that time still carry the wooden halls, which have been rebuilt after fires and wars, most destructively during the Japanese invasions of the 1590s.
Read the complete Seokguram Grotto and Bulguksa Temple write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Seokguram Grotto and Bulguksa Temple comes up about 24 km into the recorded legs. Next is Yangdong Cluster: Donggangseowon Confucian.
Yangdong is a village that still lives like the old Korea of the Joseon dynasty. It lies in a valley north of Gyeongju, in a bowl of low wooded hills, and it is home to some of the finest surviving traditional houses in the country, hundreds of tiled-roof and thatched homes spread over the slopes. Two great clans have dominated it for centuries, the Wolseong Son and the Yeogang Yi, and their families built the large tile-roofed mansions on the high ground with the thatched houses of the tenants below. The neat layout follows the principles of feng shui: the main houses face south with a hill behind and a stream in front. UNESCO listed Yangdong along with Hahoe in 2010 as the Historic Villages of Korea.
Read the complete Yangdong Cluster: Donggangseowon Confucian write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 64 km into the recorded legs you reach Yangdong Cluster: Donggangseowon Confucian. Next is back through Seokguram Grotto and Bulguksa Temple.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Seokguram Grotto and Bulguksa Temple write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Seokguram Grotto and Bulguksa Temple, late in the day. Next is Mt. Namsan Belt, 24 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.
Back at Mt. Namsan Belt. That is the ride.
Mt. Namsan Belt → Seokguram Grotto and Bulguksa Temple is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Seokguram Grotto and Bulguksa Temple → Yangdong Cluster: Donggangseowon Confucian is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Yangdong Cluster: Donggangseowon Confucian → back through Seokguram Grotto and Bulguksa Temple is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Seokguram Grotto and Bulguksa Temple → Mt. Namsan Belt is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.