Why Go
Tombs Built of Stacked Stone
1. The tombs
The tombs of Ji'an are built of cut stone laid in steps, in a form that looks like a flat-topped pyramid, with large slabs leaning against the base to hold the sides. The photographs show two of them: the Tomb of the General, with its stepped tiers and big buttress slabs, and older mounds of rough stone in a green valley.
The tombs belonged to royal and noble families, and some contain painted chambers. They sit in open ground with a mountain backdrop, in a park laid out around them.
2. Mountain cities
The kingdom's capitals were mountain cities: a fortress on a ridge for defence, with a lower city for daily life. Wunü Mountain City was an early capital, and Gungnae and Hwando were later capitals, with a palace and many tombs. The site is an early example of the mountain-city form that neighbouring cultures later copied.
Much of the site is still partly excavated, so visits are mostly about the setting and the tombs rather than reconstructed buildings.
