Sungnyemun Gate (Namdaemun)

A massive stone pedestal supports a dark, wooden, two-story pagoda roof that looms over the modern street level. This is Sungnyemun, the Great Southern Gate of the old fortress wall that once circled Seoul. In two thousand eight, a man set fire to the gate’s wooden structure, and the entire pavilion collapsed into ashes. When workers rebuilt it, they used traditional tools and followed centuries-old techniques, leaving the fresh cedar beams to turn gray naturally under the sun and rain.