Koguryo tombs

Korean spelling
Korean alphabet :	고구려 고분군
Hanja :	高句麗古墳群
Revised Romanization :	goguryeo gobungun
McCune-Reischauer :	koguryŏ kobungun

Koguryo tombs
UNESCO world heritage
	Grave of the founder of the empire Dongmyeong
National territory:	North Korea
Type:	Culture
Criteria :	(i) (ii) (iii) (iv)
Surface:	233 ha
Buffer zone:	1,701 ha
Reference No .:	1091
UNESCO region :	Asia and Pacific
	History of enrollment
Enrollment:	2004 (session 28)

Koguryo Tombs is a UNESCO listed World Heritage Site in North Korea . The serial World Heritage site includes groups of tombs and individual tombs from the late period of the Goguryeo Kingdom .

background

The kingdom of Goguryeo was one of the so-called three kingdoms of Korea in the 1st millennium AD . According to the Samguk Sagi of Dongmyeong, it was founded on today's territory of North Korea and Manchuria in northeast China around the year 32 BC, but presumably existed one to two hundred years earlier. It conquered large parts of Manchuria and penetrated ever further south on the Korean Peninsula . The empire reached its greatest expansion under King Gwanggaeto (ruled 391-413) and his son Jangsu (ruled 413-490). In AD 427, Jangsu moved the capital of the empire to Pyongyang . He penetrated ever further south and conquered Hanseong in 475, today's Seoul , the then capital of the Kingdom of Baekje . In 668 Goguryeo was conquered by a coalition of the Kingdom of Silla with the China of the Tang Dynasty .

In Pyongyang and its surroundings there are numerous tombs of kings of the Goguryeo dynasty , their family members and high-ranking nobles. Some of the graves are decorated with wall paintings. They are almost the only relic of the Goguryeo culture. A total of 10,000 graves from the Goguryeo period are known to date in China and North Korea, but only 90 of these graves have wall paintings, almost half of them in Pyongyang and its surroundings. The murals that were found offer a unique insight into everyday life during the Goguryeo period in terms of clothing, food, living and funeral customs. In addition, they show motifs of religious practices and images related to Buddhism , Taoism and the four deities.

enrollment

The inscription as a cultural heritage site in the World Heritage List took place in 2004 as the first World Heritage Site in North Korea based on a resolution of the 28th session of the World Heritage Committee. The entry was made on the basis of criteria i, ii, iii and iv.

(i): The wall paintings of the Koguryo tombs are masterpieces of the culture and epoch of the Koguryo Kingdom. The construction of the graves shows ingenious technical solutions.

(ii): The particular burial customs of the Koguryo culture had an important influence on other cultures in the region, including Japan.

(iii): The Koguryo tombs are an exceptional testimony to the Koguryo culture, their burial customs and their daily life and beliefs.

(iv): The complex of the Koguryo tombs is an important example of the burial typology.

In 2004, parallel to the Koguryo tombs in North Korea, a group of sites in the Kingdom of Goguryeo in China was added to the World Heritage List under the title Capitals and Tombs of the Ancient Kingdom of Koguryo .

scope

The world heritage site comprises twelve separate areas with a total of 30 large graves. These have a total protection area of 232.9 ha . One of the protected areas also contains several clusters of smaller graves. The individual protection areas are each surrounded by buffer zones, which have a total area of 1,701.2 hectares. Some protected areas that are close to one another have a common buffer zone.

Ref.No.	designation	location	Gravesites	National treasure	Protection area	Buffer zone
1091-001	King Dongmyeong's tomb and the Jinpha-ri group of tombs in its vicinity	Ryongsan-ri Ryŏkp'o-guyŏk Pyongyang	King Dongmyeong's tomb ( location )	No. 36	220 ha	527 ha
1091-001		Ryongsan-ri Ryŏkp'o-guyŏk Pyongyang	Jinpha-ri Tomb No. 1 ( location ) Jinpha-ri Tomb No. 2 ( location ) Jinpha-ri Tomb No. 3 ( location ) Jinpha-ri Tomb No. 4 ( location ) Jinpha-ri Tomb No. 5 ( location ) Jinpha-ri Tomb No. 6 ( location ) Jinpha-ri Tomb No. 7 ( location ) Jinpha-ri Tomb No. 8 ( location ) Jinpha-ri Tomb No. 9 ( location ) Jinpha-ri Tomb No. 10 ( location ) Jinpha-ri Tomb No. 11 ( location ) Jinpha-ri Tomb No. 12 ( location ) Jinpha-ri Tomb No. 13 ( location ) Jinpha-ri Tomb # 14 ( location ) Jinpha-ri Tomb # 15 ( location )	No. 181 - - No. 180 - - - - - - - - - - -	220 ha	527 ha
1091-002	Four deities tomb and neighboring tombs	Honam-ri Samsŏk-guyŏk Pyongyang	Four deities tomb ( location ) Several grave mound clusters with smaller graves in the area	No. 26	0.8 ha	331 ha
1091-003	Tokhwa-ri tombs	Tokhwa-ri Taedong-gun P'yŏngan-namdo	Tokhwa-ri Tomb No. 1 ( location ) Tokhwa-ri Tomb No. 2 ( location ) Tokhwa-ri Tomb No. 3 ( location )	No. 161 - -	0.32 ha	92.3 ha
1091-004	Three Kangso graves	Sammyo-ri Kangsŏ-gun Namp'o	Three tombs arranged close together in a triangle shape: Great Kangso Tomb ( location ) Middle Kangso Tomb ( location ) Small Kangso Tomb ( location )	No. 28	1.9 ha	473 ha
1091-005	Tokhung-ri tomb ( location )	Tokhung-ri Kangsŏ-gun Namp'o		-	2.5 ha	473 ha
1091-006	Yaksu-ri tomb ( location )	Yaksu-ri Kangsŏ-gun Namp'o		No. 29	1.1 ha	67 ha
1091-007	Susan-ri-grave ( location )	Susan-ri Kangsŏ-gun Namp'o		No. 30	1.2 ha	34.4 ha
1091-008	Great Ryonggang Tomb ( location )	Ryonggang-gun Namp'o		-	0.34 ha	-
1091-009	Twin column grave ( location )	Ryonggang-gun Namp'o		No. 39	0.29 ha	-
1091-010	Anak grave no.1 ( location )	Taechu-ri Anak-gun Hwanghae-namdo		No. 73	0.19 ha	85 ha
1091-011	Anak tomb No. 2 ( location )	Taechu-ri Anak-gun Hwanghae-namdo		No. 74	0.21 ha	85 ha
1091-012	Anak grave no.3 ( location )	Oguk-ri Anak-gun Hwanghae-namdo		No. 67	4.1 ha	91.5 ha

photos

Temple at the tomb of Dongmyeong
Stone figure at the grave of Dongmyeong
Great Kangso tomb
Mural of a woman in Anak tomb no.3
Mural of a man in Anak's tomb No. 3

literature

Koguryo tombs . In: The World Heritage . Frederking & Thaler, Munich 2015, ISBN 978-3-95416-181-2 , pp. 715 .
Koguryo tombs . In: The UNESCO World Heritage . Kunth Verlag, Munich 2017, ISBN 978-3-95504-413-8 , pp. 444 .

Web links

Commons : Complex of Koguryo tombs - collection of images, videos and audio files

Koguryo Tombs on the UNESCO World Heritage Center website ( English and French ).
Product of Asia Times Online (English)

Individual evidence

↑ Official names English Complex of Koguryo Tombs , French Ensemble des tombes de Koguryo , German translation according to the World Heritage List. In: Unesco.de. Retrieved June 7, 2017 .
↑ ^a ^b ^c Complex of Koguryo Tombs. In: whc.unesco.org. UNESCO World Heritage Center, accessed June 7, 2017 .
↑ written in the McCune-Reischauer romanization Koguryŏ , which is usual in North Korea
↑ Decision: 28 COM 14B.33. In: whc.unesco.org. UNESCO World Heritage Center, accessed June 6, 2018 .
↑ Decision: 28 COM 14B.25. In: whc.unesco.org. UNESCO World Heritage Center, accessed June 6, 2018 .
^ Complex of Koguryo Tombs. Maps. In: whc.unesco.org. UNESCO World Heritage Center, accessed June 6, 2018 .

Map with all coordinates: OSM | WikiMap

[1] Official names English Complex of Koguryo Tombs , French Ensemble des tombes de Koguryo , German translation according to the World Heritage List. In: Unesco.de. Retrieved June 7, 2017 .

[whc-2] Complex of Koguryo Tombs. In: whc.unesco.org. UNESCO World Heritage Center, accessed June 7, 2017 .

[3] written in the McCune-Reischauer romanization Koguryŏ , which is usual in North Korea

[4] Decision: 28 COM 14B.33. In: whc.unesco.org. UNESCO World Heritage Center, accessed June 6, 2018 .

[5] Decision: 28 COM 14B.25. In: whc.unesco.org. UNESCO World Heritage Center, accessed June 6, 2018 .

[6] Complex of Koguryo Tombs. Maps. In: whc.unesco.org. UNESCO World Heritage Center, accessed June 6, 2018 .