Jo Dec 11, 2024
The Monument to the Great Victory in Yonsong Area is in Yonan County Town, South Hwanghae Province. It was erected in 1608, in commemoration of the victory in the battle on Yonan Fort during the Imjin Patriotic War.
During the war, the Korean people organized themselves into volunteer armies in all parts of the country and waged a vigorous struggle to drive out the Japanese invaders.
During those days, there was a proud story in which the righteous volunteers led by Ri Jong Am defended Yonan Fort to the last by beating back three thousand Japanese invaders.
The monument tells about the death-defying battles to repulse the Japanese invaders who attacked the fort from late August to early September in 1592.
The monument is standing on a double-layer rectangular pedestal block of granite. The body is made of black marble and the top is faced to form a semicircle without a head stone.
The inscription is said to have been composed by Ri Hang Bok, who was known as a clever writer in those days.
The Monument to the Great Victory in Yonsong Area, like the Monument to the Great Victory in Pukgwan, is a precious national treasure relic that tells about the victory won by the Korean people in the struggle to drive back the Japanese aggressors during the Imjin Patriotic War.
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Jo Dec 8, 2024
Seven-storey Tower at Hyonhwa Temple was originally standing on the site of a temple called Hyonhwa Temple at the foot of Mt. Ryongchu in Wolgo-ri, Jangphung County, Kaesong City, but at present it is in Koryo Museum.
According to the historical records, the tower was built in 1020.
It consists of a platform, the body of seven stories and a head.
It is 8.64 meters high and each side of the platform is 3.9 meters long. It is rather tall as a stone tower of the Koryo age.
On each side of the platform are three pillars between which properly faced brick-shaped stones are neatly piled in five layers. Thick plate stones are placed on the top of the platform. Such formation of the platform is rare for stone towers.
What is so unusual about the tower is curved eaves and corner columns.
On the seven body stones are engraved with Buddhist images, which shows excellent and sophisticated engraving.
The tower is large in scale and made in considerable dimensions with exquisite workmanship of parts and a good harmony of the whole and the parts.
The tower is a precious national treasure showing the tower architecture of Korean ancestors and its development.
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Jo Dec 3, 2024
The Wooden Bridge of the Taedong River was built in the period of Koguryo to link Chongho-dong in Taesong District with Hyuam-dong in Sadong District, Pyongyang City.
Around the bridge are several historical sites of the Koguryo age. To the north are Taesongsan Fort and Anhak Palace, and to the northwest and northeast are Chongam-ri Castle and Kobangsan Fort. To the south on the other side are the Mausoleum of King Tongmyong, the founder of Koguryo, and Jongrung Temple, the temple of the mausoleum. The location of these historical sites implies that the bridge was a major traffic route connecting the royal palace of Koguryo and the southern area to the Taedong River.
At the east entrance to the bridge is a log frame interlocked for a light pole. The frames of the bridge are mostly thick timber girders 38 centimeters wide, 26 centimeters thick and 8 to 10 centimeters long.
The traces of the bridge show that it was a large bridge about 375 meters long and about 9 meters wide, with a thick floor covering and railings on tightly-fit supporting planks on massive supporting pillars of interlocked log frames.
At the time of discovery, not only wooden frameworks but also many pieces of roofing tiles and earthenware of the Koguryo age were unearthed in the vicinity of the bridge, which indicates the long history of the bridge.
The bridge was one of the oldest and largest bridges of great rarity in the world as well as in our country at that time.
The size of the bridge and its structural elements, and the skills in strong fabrication by the dovetail joint demonstrate the high level of wooden construction techniques of the Koguryo people.
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Jo Nov 11, 2024
Among the national cultural heritages of our people with a 5 000-year-long history is the stone lamp of the Kaeguk Temple known as the stone lamp of the Koryo dynasty.
There was a stone lamp at the Kaeguk Temple in Kaesong City.
The Kaeguk Temple was built in 935. It was famous as one of the top ten temples of the Koryo dynasty, but it became dilapidated during the feudal Joson dynasty.
At the temple there was a seven-storeyed stone tower together with the stone lamp.
The structure of the stone lamp lets us believe that it was made at the same time as the seven-storey tower. According to the records of “Koryo History”, the seven-storey tower was built before 1018.
The stone lamp at the Kaeguk Temple, one of the biggest stone lamps existing in our country, is 3.72 meters tall. It is a square plane lamp made of smoothly faced granite which consists of a base stone, pillars, light space and a lamp head.
Every side of the square plane base stone is 1.92 meters long and the top is engraved with an up-side-down lotus flower.
The stone lamp is one of the precious cultural legacies that demonstrate the stone architecture of the early years of the Koryo dynasty characterized by simplicity and majesty.
At present, it is preserved as a national treasure in the Koryo Museum in Kaesong.
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Jo Nov 6, 2024
The astronomical chart is another name of the picture of constellation.
“Honchonjondo” shows the level of our country’s astronomical development in the eighteenth century.
“Honchonjondo” literally means “a picture of the whole sky”. Showing the stars in the night sky on a sheet of paper, it gives a description of astronomical phenomena and explanation about them, and keeps a record of astronomical constants.
“Honchonjondo” chiefly shows our own astronomical development dating from the ages of the first Korean state founded by King Tangun, with a brief account of the western astronomical development until the first half of the eighteenth century.
All the astronomical contents found in “Honchonjondo” are a precious astronomical heritage of our country, which shows the astronomical development of that time. The national treasure that enriches the treasure house of Eastern astronomy is now preserved in the Grand People’s Study House.
“Honchonjondo”, which is permeated with the wisdom and intelligence of the Korean nation, was registered as a world heritage of UNESCO in May, 2023. This is a brilliant fruition of the Workers' Party of Korea's policy of national cultural protection, and a significant occasion for inspiring the Korean people with national pride and self-esteem.
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Jo Nov 2, 2024
Pine Island on Sea Chilbo is an island off Pochon-ri, Myongchon County.
It is one of the scenic spots in Sea Chilbo of Mt. Chilbo, which has been widely known as “Kumgang in North Hamgyong Province” from olden times.
The island is not too far from the land. It was originally a single one but a crack widened gradually to split the island into two.
On the mid-slope of the island is a cave called “Dragon Cave”.
The island is covered mostly in pine, oak and maple.
The pine island has been known as a noted place of Sea Chilbo from olden times for its wonderful scenic beauty.
The pine island is of academic significance and scenic worth.
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