Seolleung and Jeongneung Tombs

Seolleung holds King Seongjong and his queen, and Jeongneung his son King Jungjong, and the three mounds sit together in about twenty-four hectares of woodland in the middle of Gangnam - which is the thing people remember, because the trees stop abruptly at the wall and glass towers start. It is part of the Royal Tombs of the Joseon Dynasty, forty tombs inscribed by UNESCO in 2009 as a group. The arrangement is standard and worth reading on the ground: an entrance gate, a stone spirit road leading to a T-shaped wooden shrine where rites were performed, then the mound itself raised on a terrace behind, ringed by stone figures of officials, soldiers and animals facing outward. Walking paths loop through the woods between the three. The tombs were looted and burned during the sixteenth-century invasions, which the signage covers. Rites are still performed annually. It is a straightforward, quiet hour in a district that has none.

What you actually see

• The burial mounds - grassed tumuli on their stone terraces.
• The stone figures - officials, soldiers and animals round each.
• The T-shaped shrines - the ritual halls at the mound approaches.
• The wood in Gangnam - trees against the office towers.

When to go

April to June and October to November for the wood at its best. Closed on Mondays. Weekday lunchtimes bring office workers walking the paths.

Honest expectations

Visitors cannot approach the mounds themselves - viewing is from the terrace below. It is small and takes an hour. Interpretation is decent but the site is quiet rather than spectacular.

Nearby

Bongeunsa and COEX are a short walk; Gangnam station is a few stops west.