Gyeongju

Erma and I are at Erma's parents' place in southeast Korea this weekend. It's not far from Gyeongju, the ancient capital of the Shilla Dynasty. We spent Saturday at the Gyeongju National Museum, where Erma's mother volunteers regularly as a docent, giving free guided tours in English. She's very knowledgeable about the collection.

The museum has a great collection, much of it excavated from the royal tombs in the area. The Gyeongju landscape is, to use a slightly inappropriate term, littered with the burial mounds of Shilla kings and nobles.

Here's a picture of one I took from our moving car.


I think it might be the one you can see ahead in the distance in this picture, which was taken a bit earlier.


Then again, it might not be.

And here's a nice view, from the hillside restaurant where we ate dinner, of four mounds in a line. (That's Erma's mom enjoying the view.)


It's nice to get out of Seoul, which is unrelentingly devoid of greenery. Gyeongju is smaller, quieter, on a more human scale. There are more street and sidewalk markets, no really tall buildings. The hills are nicely touched with autumn hues this time of year.


One of the most striking artifacts at the museum sits outside rather than inside the museum. It's the King Seongdeok Bell, which hangs in a specially designed pavilion. The mammoth bronze bell was cast in 771 AD and weighs almost 19 tons.


The bell still works, although it hasn't been rung in a few years. In the second picture you can clearly see the flying apsaras (that's a Sanskrit term), a kind of celestial maiden in Buddhist mythology, descending from heaven next to Erma's head.

I only took a few pictures inside the museum, because you're not allowed to use a flash. They have a lot of amazing stuff, and the museum itself is quite nice as well.

I particularly liked this frieze, from a tomb. It's one of a set of twelve zodiac animal guards, which were set up facing outward around the perimeter to protect the tomb.


It's the pig, if you were wondering.