Daereungwon Tomb Complex 대릉원

Daereungwon is free to walk and open every day 09:00–22:00. It is a park of 23 grassy Silla tombs in the centre of Gyeongju. Only Cheonmachong, the one tomb you can go inside, charges a fee: ₩3,000 for adults, and tickets stop at 21:30. Allow about an hour. From the KTX station, take city bus 60 or 61.

The mounds hold kings, queens and nobles of Silla, the kingdom that ruled from Gyeongju for close to a thousand years. Gyeongju City’s tourism site lists the park in the Daereungwon area of the UNESCO-listed Gyeongju Historic Areas. In 2011 the tombs were merged into one national Historic Site, “Gyeongju Daereungwon and surroundings”.

Is Daereungwon worth it, and is Cheonmachong worth ₩3,000?

Go, even on a one-night stop. It is the easiest of Gyeongju’s big sights to fit in: free, flat, in the town centre and open late. Pay for Cheonmachong too. For ₩3,000 you stand inside a real tomb mound and see how it was built, which makes the rest of the park make sense.

Hours	Every day 09:00–22:00; Cheonmachong tickets until 21:30
Park grounds	Free
Cheonmachong, adults (19–64)	3,000 won
Cheonmachong, age 13–18	2,000 won
Cheonmachong, age 7–12	1,000 won
Free for Cheonmachong	Age 6 and under, 65 and over, people with disabilities
Time needed	About 1 hour

Hours and fees from Gyeongju City’s tourism pages, with the same hours and fees on VisitKorea, checked 23 October 2026. Age bands follow Gyeongju City’s admission page, where “adult” means 19–64. If you are 65 or over, carry your passport in case you are asked to show your age.

Daytime or evening?

Both work, because the park stays open until 22:00. In the day the mounds look their greenest and the paths are easy to follow. In the evening the park is lit, and Donggung Palace and Wolji Pond, Gyeongju’s best-known night view, is a walk east past Cheomseongdae. For a single night in town, see Daereungwon in the late afternoon and go to the pond after sunset.

What you see inside the park

• Cheonmachong (Tomb No. 155). The only tomb open inside. Excavated in 1973, it is 12.7 m high and 50 m across, and was probably built in the late 5th or early 6th century. Inside, a glass-walled hall shows the rebuilt wooden chamber and the rubble mound around it.
• The flying horse. The tomb is named after Cheonmado, a painting of a heavenly horse on a birch-bark saddle flap found here. It is a National Treasure, and some scholars now argue the animal is a mythical girin rather than a horse.
• The gold crown. Gyeongju City calls the Cheonmachong crown the largest and most ornate Silla crown found so far. The originals, with the gold belt, cap and shoes, are in Gyeongju National Museum.
• Hwangnamdaechong. A double mound, two tombs joined north to south, and the largest tomb in Gyeongju. Its excavation in the 1970s yielded about 57,000 objects. Finds in the north mound suggest a woman and in the south a man, so it is thought to be a royal couple.
• Tomb of King Michu. The park’s only tomb identified as a king’s, the 13th ruler of Silla. Old cherry trees stand around it, so it is busy in spring and pretty again when the leaves turn in autumn.
• The magnolia. A single magnolia tree between two mounds is the park’s best-known photo spot.

Outside the walls, the Daereungwon stone-wall path runs about 550 m along the park from near the back gate to the main gate. It is lined with cherry trees and is one of Gyeongju’s cherry blossom walks in spring.

Getting to Daereungwon

From	How	Get off / walk
Gyeongju Station (KTX)	City bus 60 or 61 from the stop at the station	천마총후문.황리단길 (Cheonmachong back gate), the 17th stop; about 150 m to Cheonmachong
Express and intercity bus terminals	On foot	About 0.6 km to Cheonmachong, 0.8 km to the middle of the park
Back to Gyeongju Station	Bus 60 or 61 from the 고속버스.시외버스터미널 (bus terminal) stop	14 stops to the station

Stop orders, first and last buses and the stop coordinates from Gyeongju City’s live bus system; walking distances are straight-line from those coordinates, checked 23 October 2026.

• Bus times. From the station, the first and last 60 leave at 06:00 and 19:40, and the 61 at 06:35 and 19:20. Gaps run from 20 minutes to 2 hours, so check the live times or take a taxi.
• Check the sign on the bus. Some 60 and 61 runs are marked 천마총미경유 and do not pass Daereungwon.
• Which stop? Use the Cheonmachong back gate stop, the closest to Cheonmachong. A later stop on the same route is also called 천마총. It is on the south side of the park, nearer Cheomseongdae, and about 0.7 km from Cheonmachong itself.
• Fares. A city bus ride is 1,500 won, or 50 won less with a transport card. One transfer within 30 minutes is free.

By car, use the paid public car park at the main gate (2,000 won for small cars for the first 2 hours) or the Nodong public car park on Taejong-ro. Gyeongju City also lists a free temporary car park at Jjoksaem, east of the park.

Tips

• Combine the centre on foot. Cheomseongdae is just south of the park, and Hwangnidan-gil, the street of hanok cafes, runs along its west side.
• Come in spring or autumn. The cherry trees around King Michu’s tomb and along the wall path flower in early April. The same trees turn colour in autumn.
• See the treasures too. The museum holds the crowns and gold from these tombs; Gyeongju City recommends a visit after Cheonmachong.
• One more tomb to enter. The Geumgwanchong tomb and Silla Tomb Information Center nearby (09:00–18:00, closed 1 January and on Seollal and Chuseok days) also shows the inside of a Silla tomb.

Around Daereungwon

The tomb park is the start of most walks around central Gyeongju: past Cheomseongdae to Donggung Palace and Wolji Pond, the national museum and Gyochon Hanok Village. For trains, where to stay and the Bulguksa side of town, see the Gyeongju guide and the Gyeongsang region page. For a route that adds Gyeongju between Seoul and Busan, see Korea in 7 days.