‘Goseong Songhakdong Tumuli’ Registered as the 16th UNESCO World Heritage Site in Korea

Goseong County in Gyeongnam has succeeded in having the Goseong Songhakdong Tumuli registered as a World Heritage site under the name "Gaya Tumuli" since 2018, becoming the 16th World Heritage site in South Korea.

The Goseong Songhakdong Tumuli Cluster has been inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The "Gaya Tumuli" is a serial heritage site comprising seven Gaya tumulus clusters that were established mainly in the southern part of the Korean Peninsula from the 1st to the 6th century. It has been promoted for World Heritage registration through collaboration among seven local governments including Goseong County, Gimhae, Haman, Changnyeong, Hapcheon, Goryeong, and Namwon, as well as three metropolitan autonomous entities?Gyeongsangnam-do, Gyeongsangbuk-do, and Jeollabuk-do?and the Cultural Heritage Administration.

As a result, the registration was finally decided on the 17th during the 45th World Heritage Committee held from September 10 to 25 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The "Gaya Tumuli" was recognized for its Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) as a unique evidence of the coexistence of various Gaya political entities that played a bridging role in Northeast Asian tumulus culture and led external exchanges in the southern Korean Peninsula, thus being inscribed as a World Heritage site.

At the center of this is the Goseong Songhakdong Tumuli, the main tumulus cluster of Sogaya, symbolizing the Sogaya political entity that led external exchanges in the late 5th to 6th century, as well as being an emblematic symbol of Goseong.

In particular, unlike other Gaya tumulus clusters, the Goseong Songhakdong Tumuli feature a mound-first, burial-later structure, where the mound is constructed first and then the upper part is excavated to create stone coffins or stone chambers, known as the bun-gumyo structure.

During the excavation of Tomb No. 7 in 2021, conducted as part of the Sogaya restoration project, it was confirmed that the lower structure was built using advanced civil engineering techniques by bonding soil clods of different physical properties without using any stone materials.

In September 2020, the county established a comprehensive maintenance plan for the Goseong Songhakdong Tumuli and is currently in consultation for approval from the Cultural Heritage Administration. The comprehensive maintenance plan was systematically developed to accommodate visitors and ensure the preservation and management of the heritage after its World Heritage registration.

As part of this, trial excavations were conducted on Tomb No. 14 of the Goseong Songhakdong Tumuli and on the non-designated cultural properties Tombs No. 15 and 16. Based on the results, the county plans to systematically proceed with the comprehensive maintenance of the Sogaya relics, including expanding the designated cultural property zones.

County Governor Sang-geun Lee said, "The Goseong Songhakdong Tumuli, which fully preserves the splendid history of Sogaya, is a historic achievement not only due to the efforts of many experts but above all because all the residents united and worked hard together. I thank all the residents for the global recognition of our cultural excellence. I ask for the interest and cooperation of all residents in building 'Goseong, the World Heritage City,' which will rise beyond Korea to the world."

He added, "We will make every effort to systematically carry out the comprehensive maintenance of the Sogaya relics so that Goseong can take a step forward as a place visited by people from around the world without any setbacks."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.