Gyeongju has been called a “museum without walls” and the area has been designated a Unesco World Heritage site. Geongju was the capital of the Silla kingdom which lasted a millennium from 57 BC until 935 AD.

Now a pleasant provincial town, with many traditional houses, Gyeongju is a place that should not be missed. Sights include the 8th century, Seokguram Grotto, one of Asia’s greatest Buddhist shrines with a magnificent seated Buddha under a granite dome, Bulguksa Temple, one of Korea’s best known temples, built in 535 and a masterpiece of Silla architecture with a delightful setting on the slope of Mount Tohamsan. In Tumuli Park, large mounds hide the graves of the Silla Royal Family. One of the tombs the Heavenly Horse Tomb was excavated in 1974 and yielded more than10, 000 treasures. You can visit the interior of this tomb and see the fantastic artefacts in the Gyeongju National Museum. The National Museum is well worth a visit and preserves the Silla heritage including gold crowns, jewellery, pottery, Buddhist artefacts and stone sculptures. Other items of the Silla period were excavated at Anapji Pond, a place where the Silla Royal Family relaxed and entertained important guests in a harmonious royal garden. Other places of interest include the Geyongju Folk Handicraft Village with 17 workshops and the Yangdong Folk Village consisting of 160 traditional houses between 200 and 500 years old.

When visiting Gyeongju you can either stay in the city centre or the nearby Bomun Lake Resort, with deluxe hotels, pleasure boats and hot springs. It is particularly pretty in the spring when the cherry blossom is in bloom.