Gochang Dolmen Site

Korea holds something like forty percent of the world's dolmens, and Gochang has the largest single cluster - more than four hundred and forty of them strung along about two kilometres of low hillside, inscribed by UNESCO in 2000 together with the sites at Hwasun and Ganghwa. They date from roughly the first millennium BC and come in several forms on the same slope, which is what makes the place useful: table-type with a capstone on upright legs, go-board type on low supports, and capstones set straight on the ground, so the typology can be walked in one visit. Some capstones weigh well over a hundred tonnes. What they meant is still argued - burial markers, status monuments, or both - and the museum at the entrance sets out the evidence and the open questions rather than picking one. A small trolley runs the length of the site for those who do not want the walk.

What you actually see

• The four hundred dolmens - along two kilometres of slope.
• The three types - table, go-board and capstone-on-ground.
• The largest capstones - blocks of a hundred tonnes and more.
• The museum - what is known and what is still debated.

When to go

April to June and September to November. Little shade on the slope, so summer is hard going. It is seldom crowded.

Honest expectations

They are stones in a field, and without the museum first the walk means little. Interpretation on the slope itself is sparse. The full length is a fair distance on foot.

Nearby

Gochang's Moyangseong fortress is in the town; Seonunsa is west.