Visual Index of Gyeongju Sites (Site name and description)
	Anapji Royal Pond (674) A Silla-era banquet garden.		Bulguksa Temple (6th-9th centuries) The most famous temple in Korea.
	Bunhwangsa Temple (634) Temple ruins predating unified Silla.		Cheomseongdae Observatory (647) The only intact Silla-era building.
	Dongnakdang House (1516) The house where the great scholar Yi Eonjeok lived in the 16th century.		Geumcheok Village Tumuli (age unknown) Mysterious mounds associated with the legend of a magic rod.
	Heavenly Horse Tomb (1st-4th centuries) An ancient tomb from the pre-Silla past.		Hwangnyeongsa Temple (7th-13th centuries) Nothing remains of this grand temple but the foundation stones.
	King Muyeol's Tomb (661) The tomb of one of Silla's greatest kings.		Kim Yu-sin's Tomb (673) The tomb of a great Silla general.
	Namsan Village Twin Pagodas (age unknown) Two stately pagodas from Silla era, side by side in the rice fields.		Oksan Seowon Academy (1572) A private academy dedicated to Yi Eonjeok.
	Seochulji Pond and Arakdang Pavilion (1664) A pond mentioned in a 14th century chronicle.		Seokguram Grotto (8th century) A masterpiece of Silla sculpture—underground.
	Square Tomb (8th century?) The traditional tomb of Kim Tae-song, architect of Bulguksa and Seokguram.

About Gyeongju

Since the 1970s, the Korean government has been aggressively redeveloping Gyeongju as one of the country's premier tourist destinations. The city's fame rests on its abundance of antiquities, left over from a time when this small town was once a teeming metropolis of 1,000,000 and capital of much of the peninsula.

According to the Samguk Yusa, an early Korean historical work, Gyeongju was founded in in the 1st century BC. Originally the region was settled by six clans, who joined forces in mutual defense, protecting a city called Saro. At some later date this federation of clans developed into a hereditary kingship which came to control large areas of southeast Korea. State-formation is believed to have occurred in the early 5th century, with prominent leaders interred in large tumuli that now occupy the center of the city. Somewhat later Gyeongju, as it came to be known, developed into a cosmopolitan city with a culture strongly influenced by Tang China.

Silla was but one of three states jockeying for preeminence on the Korean peninsula. In the 660s, Silla forces joined with Tang armies to defeat rivals Baekje and Goguryeo, "unifying" Korea for the first time. However, this "unification" encompassed only the southern two-thirds of the peninsula. The modern contours of Korea would not take shape until the Goryeo dynasty (918-1392).

It is said that at the peak of Silla prosperity in the late 8th century, Gyeongju had over a million residents and not a single thatched roof. Gyeongju remained the capital of Unified Silla until the kingdom's fall in 938 AD.