Daereungwon Tumuli Park

Silla buried its rulers under mounds of earth piled over a wooden chamber sealed in river stones, and because that construction was almost impossible to rob, the tombs came down to the twentieth century intact. Daereungwon is the largest cluster still standing in the middle of Gyeongju: twenty-three green hills of grass, some low, some the height of a building, on mown lawns with paths between them. Cheonmachong was excavated in 1973 and left open, so you can walk into a cut-away of the layered stone and timber and see how it was put together. Hwangnamdaechong beside it is a double mound, the largest of them all.

What you actually see

• Cheonmachong - the one opened tomb, showing a cross-section of its construction.
• Hwangnamdaechong - the twin mound, the biggest Silla tomb still standing.
• The mounds at dusk - grass hills lit low, when the park is at its quietest.
• The scale of it - twenty-three tombs in a few hectares of ordinary town centre.

When to go

Spring blossom and autumn colour are the two peaks and both bring crowds. Early morning and the hour before closing are far calmer. The mounds are lit after dark in season. Gyeongju is small enough to walk, and several other sites sit within a few minutes of the gate, so half a day covers the cluster.

Honest expectations

From outside they are grass hills, and there is only so long you can look at them; the gold and glass that make them significant are in the national museum, not here. Cheonmachong is the only interior and it is a display rather than the tomb as found, often with a queue. The park is worked hard by hanbok rental groups.

Nearby

Cheomseongdae and the Wolji pond are a few minutes' walk; Bulguksa is a bus ride east.