Seokguram Grotto and Bulguksa Temple and Yangdong Cluster: Yangdong Village

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. 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.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Seokguram Grotto and Bulguksa Temple is where the day begins. Next is Mt. Namsan Belt, 19 km on.

2. 2. Mt. Namsan Belt

   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.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Mt. Namsan Belt comes up about 24 km into the recorded legs. Next is Yangdong Cluster: Yangdong Village.

3. 3. Yangdong Cluster: Yangdong Village

   Yangdong is a village that was never really meant to be seen. The Wolseong Son clan and the Yeogang Yi clan settled in this fold of hills north of Gyeongju in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and over the next few hundred years the two families built the tiled mansions of the elite on the upper slopes and the thatched houses of everyone else below, all in careful relation to the hillside. It is one of the best preserved clan villages in Korea, and in 2010 it joined Hahoe, near Andong, on UNESCO's list of historic villages of Korea.

   Read the complete Yangdong Cluster: Yangdong Village write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   about 45 km into the recorded legs you reach Yangdong Cluster: Yangdong Village. Next is back through Mt. Namsan Belt, 19 km on.

4. 4. back through Mt. Namsan Belt

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Mt. Namsan Belt write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   back through Mt. Namsan Belt, late in the day. Next is Seokguram Grotto and Bulguksa Temple.

5. 5. Seokguram Grotto and Bulguksa Temple

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Seokguram Grotto and Bulguksa Temple write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Back at Seokguram Grotto and Bulguksa Temple. That is the ride.