Inje University Report Week 2: Gimhae historical sites

 2 주차

김해 역사 - Gimhae Historical sites

Because last week was Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving) There we no classes and so I thought It would be fun to invite my friend Amy to Gimhae and together we could explore some of the Historical sites. I really wanted to see King Suro's Tomb as I had seen pictures of it before coming to Korea and later we discovered there is a lot to do around Gimhae within walking distance.

The first stop on our adventure was King Suro's tomb, King Suro was the founder of the Gimhae Kim Family. He also founded the Garak Kingdom in 42 A.D. In January 1963 this was declared Historical site no.73.

  This is the entrance to King Suro's tomb, from outside of Inje University you can take the bus number 8 and get off at the stop named 수로왕릉 정류장 or the Gimhae light railway stops at King Suro's tomb also. As with most historical sites in Korea entrance is free. 

 This mound is where the body of King Suro was laid to rest.

  There were also a series of impressive outhouses to look at.

Then round the back of the mound where King Suro is buried is a beautiful garden full of 

trees and dirt pathways.

Also within the grounds is a small museum with sets of scripts related to events within the local area and examples of robes worn by Prayer chanters and wine offerers.

  Also examples of Gaya pottery and armour.

Also, you can find stone turtles as the folktale tells of how King Suro was born from an egg that came down from heavens after some headsmen dug at a mountain singing about turtles (I advise you read up on the story to fully understand.)

Our second stop was just a walk away up past King Suro's Tomb where his wife is buried, first, we walked towards the side street and up through some residential streets towards the second tomb, it was about a 5-10 minute walk.

 The entrance to the site

an information board about the site, it also has English translations.

The mound where she is laid to rest it rather uphill.

There were some outbuildings here too but the site was not as large as King Suro's. 

Across the road from the tomb is a tiny set of stairs that leads to a park

We hadn't planned to go here, we just chanced upon it and it leads us straight to the museum which we hadn't foreseen. The park gave some beautiful views of Gimhae.

I will write another post about the museum and the rest of our journey, but I will end it here, for now, If you ever find yourself in Gimhae I highly recommend giving these sites a visit, It was a lot to see for free and a really enjoyable route. Gimhae has so much rich history centred around the Gaya Kingdom and I will explore that further in future posts.

London Nuna x