Songsan ri Ancient Tomb in South Korea

Songsan-ri Ancient Tomb in South Korea, also known as the Tomb of King Muryeong, is the ancient burial mound of King Muryeong who ruled the Baekje Kingdom from 501 to 523 and his queen. The Songsan-ri Burial Mounds and Tomb of King Muryeong (reign 462-523) contains representative relics of the Baekje period (234~678). The Songsan-ri Burial Mounds have graves of kings from the period and it is believed to contain ten such graves. Only seven graves have been discovered so far.

Features of Songsan-ri Ancient Tomb in South Korea

  -   The major attraction of Songsan-ri Burial Mounds is the wall painting on the number 6 tomb # it is the only art of its kind in the world, drawn from the way the bricks were laid to form the wall.
  -   The tomb is shaped like a long tunnel, the top rounded like a dome.
  -   There are pictures of fire-breathing dragons on the tomb.
  -   Only the parts of the wall where the pictures were to be drawn had earth coated on and Sasindo including the blue dragon, white tiger, red peacock and black turtle were drawn on that earth.
  -   The popular Tomb of King Muryeong is the 7th tomb and it is the resting place for Baekje's 25th King Mu-Ryeong and his Queen.
  -   This tomb was discovered accidentally when pipes were installed to prevent the fifth and sixth tombs from being flooded.
  -   Tomb of King Muryeong was found to be unconventional considering the way it was built and what it contained.
  -   It was built with bricks like the 6th Tomb and many national treasures were found inside providing scholars of Baekje culture with precious research material.
  -   There were 108 kinds of artifacts found inside, totaling 2,906 items altogether.
  -   12 of these artifacts were designated National Treasures.
  -   They are all on display at the Gongju National Museum.
  -   Some of the representative treasures are the crowns worn by the King and the Queen, gold decorations for the crowns, gold earrings, necklaces, bronze mirrors, pillows and foot pillows.
  -   Currently, the tomb was permanently sealed off to protect the treasures.
  -   You can see the miniature of the tomb, an exact duplicate of the original, at the basement of the Gobungun Building.