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.
A 359 km round trip from Gyeongju - roughly 5 h 26 in the saddle. The stops in between: Gyo-dong and Songhyeon-dong Tumuli, Haeinsa Temple Janggyeong Panjeon and back through Gyo-dong and Songhyeon-dong Tumuli. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Gyeongju's tumuli look like a row of green breasts rising out of a lawn, and that is exactly what makes the Daereungwon park so memorable. The mounds are the royal tombs of the Silla kingdom, which ruled the south-east of the Korean peninsula for nearly a thousand years, and eventually unified the peninsula in the seventh century. The kings and queens were buried in chambers of wood and stone, sealed under a mountain of river stones and then covered with earth, and in some of them excavators found treasures: gold crowns with branching antler-like uprights, belts, earrings and glass vessels from as far away as the Mediterranean.
Read the complete Tumuli Park Belt write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Tumuli Park Belt is where the day begins. Next is Gyo-dong and Songhyeon-dong Tumuli.
The rounded grassy mounds rising behind Changnyeong look almost like natural hills until you notice how regular they are. These are the Gyo-dong and Songhyeon-dong tumuli, burial mounds of the rulers of Bihwa, one of the small kingdoms of the Gaya confederacy that flourished in the south of the Korean peninsula between roughly the first and sixth centuries before being absorbed by Silla. In 2023 they became part of a UNESCO listing that brings together seven Gaya tomb clusters, and they are among the most atmospheric of the group.
Read the complete Gyo-dong and Songhyeon-dong Tumuli write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Gyo-dong and Songhyeon-dong Tumuli comes up about 114 km into the recorded legs. Next is Haeinsa Temple Janggyeong Panjeon.
High in the forested folds of Gayasan, in South Gyeongsang province, a temple keeps one of the great treasures of the Buddhist world. Haeinsa holds the Tripitaka Koreana, more than eighty thousand wooden printing blocks carved in the thirteenth century with the complete Buddhist scriptures, an act of devotion undertaken while the Mongols were invading Korea, in the hope that the Buddha's protection would save the country. The blocks are kept in the Janggyeong Panjeon, a pair of long, plain wooden halls built in the fifteenth century, and the halls are the real marvel. Their design uses natural ventilation, windows of different sizes on opposite walls, and a floor packed with charcoal, lime, clay and salt to regulate humidity and temperature, and they have protected the blocks for centuries without modern technology. The halls were listed by UNESCO in 1995.
Read the complete Haeinsa Temple Janggyeong Panjeon write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 181 km into the recorded legs you reach Haeinsa Temple Janggyeong Panjeon. Next is back through Gyo-dong and Songhyeon-dong Tumuli.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Gyo-dong and Songhyeon-dong Tumuli write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Gyo-dong and Songhyeon-dong Tumuli, late in the day. Next is Tumuli Park Belt.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Tumuli Park Belt write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Tumuli Park Belt. That is the ride.
Tumuli Park Belt → Gyo-dong and Songhyeon-dong Tumuli is 114 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Gyo-dong and Songhyeon-dong Tumuli → Haeinsa Temple Janggyeong Panjeon is 67 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Haeinsa Temple Janggyeong Panjeon → back through Gyo-dong and Songhyeon-dong Tumuli is 68 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Gyo-dong and Songhyeon-dong Tumuli → Tumuli Park Belt is 110 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.