Royal Tombs of the Goryeo Dynasty
Inside one tomb, 158 dogs are painted on the walls. Inside another, the ceiling maps twenty-eight stars and six constellations. A third holds nothing but an earthen mound and silence. The Royal Tombs of the Goryeo Dynasty are scattered across the hills of southwestern North Hwanghae Province, most within twenty kilometers of Kaesong, the old capital. They span nearly five centuries of Korean kingship, from the dynasty's founder in the early tenth century to its last effective ruler in the late fourteenth. No two are alike in condition, but together they form one of the most important archaeological landscapes on the Korean Peninsula.
Where to Bury a King
Goryeo tomb placement was not arbitrary. The royal court followed guidelines from Chinese Confucian texts -- the Book of Rites and the Rites of Zhou -- but filtered them through the Korean practice of pungsu, the local tradition of geomantic site selection. Distance from the capital, proximity to other royal tombs, accessibility, and the natural flow of energy through the landscape all factored into the decision. Geomancers, astrologers, and mathematicians were consulted; the wrong placement could bring misfortune upon the dynasty itself. Most tombs were sited in Kaepung County, which borders Kaesong to the west, or Changpung County to the east. Some unidentified graves lie within Kaesong itself, their occupants unknown. The result is a dispersed royal necropolis, not concentrated in a single grand cemetery but woven into the contours of the surrounding hills.
The Founder's Controversial Restoration
The tomb of King Taejo -- Wang Geon, who founded the Goryeo dynasty in 918 and unified the Korean Peninsula by 936 -- is known as Hyonnung. Located on the side of Mount Mansu in Kaepung County, it originally contained the king and his favorite wife, Queen Sinhye. In 1994, the North Korean government undertook a heavy reconstruction that cleared away all original buildings and statues. Today, the burial chamber is open to tourists and displays the coffins and original carved decorations. Behind the tomb, in the valley of Mount Mansu, lies the Chilrunggun -- a cluster of seven smaller tombs holding various princes, princesses, and concubines. The restoration raises a question that haunts cultural preservation across North Korea: how much of the original remains when a government rebuilds a thousand-year-old site from the ground up?
Painted Chambers and Star Ceilings
The most artistically significant tombs are those with surviving wall murals. Anrung, the burial place of King Jongjong, the third Goryeo monarch, contains paintings of landscapes and hunting scenes, with a ceiling decorated with twenty-eight stars and six constellations. These murals are considered a crucial link to the earlier Goguryeo kingdom's tomb art tradition -- a visual thread connecting two of Korea's great ancient states. Yangrung, the tomb of King Sinjong, the twentieth monarch, holds even more remarkable paintings: 158 dogs cover the burial chamber walls, while the ceiling displays constellations including the Big Dipper. Both tombs sit side by side on the south face of Kaesong's Namsan mountain, their art slowly deteriorating but still legible after eight centuries.
From Splendor to Bare Earth
The condition of the royal tombs varies dramatically. Yongrung, holding King Kyongjong, retains its original stone railings and guardian statues in good condition. Kongmin's tomb -- the best preserved of all -- still has its carved granite bases, stone sheep and tigers, and the spirit road lined with statues of officials. At the other extreme, Kangrung, the tomb of King Songjong, is nothing more than a bare earthen mound, every structure and ornament lost to time. Yurung, the tomb of King Yejong, has almost entirely disappeared. Some tombs are clustered -- the Sonrung complex holds three graves, the Sorung group five, and the Myongrung cluster three -- suggesting that proximity to earlier kings was itself a form of legitimacy. Collectively, these sites are listed as National Treasures and Cultural Assets of North Korea, fragments of a dynasty that gave Korea its name and its first national identity.
From the Air
The tombs are scattered across the hills near Kaesong at approximately 37.99N, 126.51E, in North Korea's North Hwanghae Province. Most lie within a 20 km radius of Kaesong, primarily in Kaepung County to the west and Changpung County to the east. From altitude, the individual tomb mounds are visible as cleared hillside features in otherwise forested terrain. The DMZ lies roughly 10-15 km to the south. Gimpo International Airport (RKSS) is approximately 55 km south. Look for the distinctive paired or clustered earthen mounds on mountain slopes.