Daereungwon Tomb Complex

Green, grass-covered mounds rise like sudden, rounded hills from the flat streets of Gyeongju. These twenty-three burial mounds hold the remains of kings and nobles from the Silla Dynasty, which ruled this peninsula for nearly a millennium. In nineteen seventy-three, excavators dug into the largest tomb here, known as Cheonmachong. They found a golden crown and thousands of other artifacts buried with a king whose name remains unknown to history, preserved by the deep, heavy clay that kept the grave chamber intact.