The Gyeongju Historic Areas contain a remarkable concentration of outstanding examples of Korean Buddhist art, in the form of sculptures, reliefs, pagodas, and the remains of temples and palaces from the flowering of this form of unique artistic expression. Gyeongju City and its surroundings have inherited traces of the glory that flowered and withered in the ancient Silla Kingdom (57 BCE-CE 935).
The centre of the town and its suburbs contain many royal burial mounds and Buddhist remains which preserve this apogee of art and culture.

Excavations continue to reveal the buried secrets of this enchanted city. Before the arrival of Buddhism in the early Silla period, Mount Namsan in Gyeongju City was worshipped as one of the five sacred mountains. It was the seat of a refined form of shamanism with elements of native cults, fetishism, and animism. With the spread of Buddhism it became the earthly representation of Sumeru, the heavenly mountain of the Buddhist lands. Its gorges and ridges are embellished with granite pagodas, filigree works, pottery buried in the earth for more than a thousand years, impressive royal graves and palace sites, and stone sculptures and rock-cut reliefs of Buddha. It is a treasure house of thousands of relics that embody Buddhist benevolence and law. The Buddhism of the Silla Kingdom was intimately linked with its sovereign power, with social and state affairs, and with family well-being. The Gyeongju historic areas constitute a reserve of materials for studying Buddhist culture and the arts of the Far East. The ruins of Wolseong, the Half Moon Palace, the many temple and fortress sites, including Hwangnyongsa, the Temple of the Yellow Dragon, huge royal mounds, and ancient wells and bridges have provided a wealth of archaeological data and will continue to do so. The legends of the Gyeongju Kim clan, the family that ruled throughout most of the Silla Kingdom, are located in the serene woods of Gyerim. Cheomseongdae is the most exquisite example of an astronomical observatory in the Orient. The Gyeongju Historic areas may be considered to be an outdoor museum housing many cultural properties centred on Mount Namsan and its surroundings. The craftsmen of the Silla Kingdom worked stone and wood with spontaneity and great artistry.

In terms of the categories of cultural property set out in Article 1 of the 1972 World Heritage Convention, this is a group of buildings.

There has been human settlement at and around the site of the present-day town of Gyeongju from the prehistoric period. The Silla clan became the rulers of the south-eastern part of the peninsula in 57 BCE. They chose Gyeongju as their capital. There followed a long period of internal struggles between rival kingdoms. With the help of the Tang Dynasty in China, the Silla Kingdom defeated its rivals in the 7th century and established its rule over most of the peninsula; this remained unchallenged until the beginning of the 10th century. The Silla rulers embellished their city with many public buildings, palaces, temples, and fortresses. Their tombs are to be found in the surroundings of the ancient city. Mahayana Buddhism spread from China into Korea during the course of the 7th century and was adopted by the Silla Kingdom. Mount Namsan, which had been venerated by the existing cults of Korea, became a Buddhist sacred mountain and attracted its adherents, who employed the most outstanding architects and craftsmen of the day to create temples, shrines, and monasteries. With the end of the Silla Kingdom, Korea underwent a further period of external strife. The country was invaded and devastated by the Japanese in the late 16th century and the Manchu in the 17th century, before being annexed by Japan in 1910. Throughout this long period, Gyeongju has maintained its urban identity, though many of its major buildings have suffered degradation and demolition.

There are three major components (belts) that make up the Gyeongju Historic Areas; in addition, the nomination covers Hwangnyongsa and the Sanseong Fortress.

Mount Namsan, which lies to the north of Gyeongju City, covers 2650ha. There is a large number of prehistoric and historic remains within the designated area. The Buddhist monuments that have been excavated up to the present include the ruins of 122 temples, 53 stone statues, 64 pagodas, and sixteen stone lanterns. Excavations have also revealed the remains of the pre-Buddhist natural and animistic cults of the region. The nomination dossier contains descriptions of 36 individual monuments within this zone eleven rock-cut reliefs or engravings, nine stone images and heads, three pagodas, seven royal tombs or tomb groups, two wells, one group of stone banner poles, the Namsan Mountain Fortress, the Poseokjeong Pavilion site, and the Seochulji Pond. The rock-cut reliefs and engravings and the stone images are fine examples of Silla Kingdom Buddhist art. They are artistic masterpieces which trace the evolution of this especially refined school of Buddhist art throughout its most prolific and innovatory period, in particular from the 7th to the 10th century. They depict for the most part Buddha, and also the saints and bodhisattvas associated with him. Skilful use is made of the landscape in siting many of the sculptural groups. The most impressive is probably the Buddha Rock, a massive natural formation in the Tapgol Valley. It is located close to a three-storey pagoda, and its three walls are decorated with vivid depictions in bas-relief of Buddha in different incarnations, surrounded by his acolytes and disciples. The royal tombs, in the form of simple earthen mounds or tumuli, reinforced by layers of stone slabs, are those of Silla kings from the 2nd to 10th century. There can be little doubt that many others remain to be found on the mountain, which was the preferred burial area for the Silla rulers. The Poseokjeong (Abalone) Pavilion takes its name from a shell-shaped stone watercourse within the enceinte. This is, in fact, the only element of the detached palace group that survives. It was the favoured site of the Silla Kings for recreation and relaxation; one of the last members of the dynasty, Gyeongae, was murdered here by the founder of the succeeding Baekje Kingdom, Gyeonhwin, during a party here in 927. Mount Namsan was first fortified in 591 and greatly enlarged in the later 7th century. This is the structure, the remains of which survive today as the Namsan Mountain fortress. Much of the parapet of the massive ramparts has been demolished, but enough survives to indicate that it stood originally to a height of no more than 2m. A broken stone inscription records the fact that the construction workers undertook to rebuilt the fortress if it collapsed within three years of building.

The main monuments in this area are the ruined palace site of Wolseong, the Gyerim woodland which legend identifies as the birthplace of the founder of the Gyeongju Kim clan, Anapji Pond, on the site of the ruined Imhaejeon Palace, and the Cheomseongdae Observatory. Wolseong (Moon Palace) takes its name from the shape of its compound. To the south the Namcheon stream forms a natural defence, and ditches were dug round the other three sides to create a water-filled moat. Its history goes back at least to the 1st century CE, when a princely compound was taken over by the Silla King. A royal palace was built at the end of that century and it was enlarged and reconstructed over succeeding centuries by successive Silla Kings, for whom it was their main palace. Another palace was built at Imhaejeon in the second half of the 7th century. Its opulent garden was graced by a beautifully configured pond (known as Wolji), with a sacred mountain in its centre. Both palace and pond were destroyed when the Silla rulers were ousted, but what remains of the pond has always been populated by wildfowl, from which it acquired its popular name, Anapji, the Pond of Geese and Ducks. The Cheomseongdae Observatory was built towards the middle of the 7th century. The platform consists of twelve rectangular slabs, which support a structure of 365 granite blocks arranged in thirty successive layers. The circumference of the base is 5.17m and the total height 9.17m; the structure tapers towards the top to provide stability. The square internal space is filled with earth and stones up to the twelfth course and open from then for twelve more courses to the top. Access is by means of a window at this level and there is an internal staircase. The astronomical ascription derives from the fact that the number of blocks is equivalent to the number of days of the year and the number of open courses to the twelve months of the year and the signs of the Zodiac.

The belt consists of three groups of Royal tombs. Most of the mounds are domed, but some take the form of a half-moon or a gourd. They contain double wooden coffins covered with gravel. Excavations have produced rich grave-goods of gold, glass, and fine ceramics. One of the earlier tombs yielded a mural painting on birch bark of a winged horse.

This group consists of two ruined temples, Hwangnyongsa and Bunhwangsa. Hwangnyongsa, built to the order of King Jinheung (540-76) was the largest temple ever built in Korea, covering some 72,500㎡. An 80m high nine-storey pagoda was added in 645. The entire complex was destroyed by Mongol invaders in 1238; it was never rebuilt, but was occupied by more than a hundred families, who were moved out in 1976. Excavations have shown that in its original form the temple had seven rectangular courtyards, each with three buildings and one pagoda. The massive pagoda on the Bunhwangsa was built in 634, using dressed stone blocks. Analysis of the stone debris suggest that it originally stood to a height of seven to nine storeys. Following Buddhist tradition, a stone lion guarded each corner of the basal platform. There is a doorway in the centre of each of the four walls of the lowest storey with two sliding doors flanked by high-relief carvings of fierce warriors or kings.

Management and Protection
Legal status

More than sixty sites and monuments are designated and managed as historic sites under the provisions of Sections 4 and 6 of the Korean Protection of Cultural Properties Act and Sections 12 and 18 of the Cultural Property Protection Ordinance of Gyeongsangbuk-do Province. The entire area nominated for inscription was designated as a national park under Sections 4 and 5 of the National Park Law. These two sets of protection legislation severely restrict any form of development within the nominated area. The Urban Planning Law imposes further constraints on all forms of development in and around the protected areas. Each of the components of the nominated area is surrounded by wide buffer zone. All proposals for construction within these zones requires authorization in the form of a permit from the Provincial Governor, as prescribed in Section 74 of the Cultural Properties Protection Act. Furthermore, no extraction of gravel or other aggregate material is permitted within a zone 2km wide around each of the protected areas. The sites are also designated as Natural Environment Preservation Zones under Section 13 of the National Land Use Management Act. Any changes that might affect the topography require authorization by the Cultural Properties Administration.

The nominated areas are all the property of the Republic of Korea.
At the national level, the Cultural Properties Administration is responsible for establishing protection policies and enforcing them. Its subsidiary, the National Research Institute of Cultural Properties, carries out scientific research and field surveys. Direct management is delegated to the administration of Gyeongju City. Repair work and maintenance on national designated sites and monuments is financed by national (70%) and local (30%) funds. For locally designated monuments the proportions contributed by national and local government are 50:50. There are currently management plans in force for the Gyeongju Historic Areas, on the Preservation of the Original Status of the Historic Areas, Preservation of the Surrounding Environment of the Historic Areas, and Utilizing the Gyeongju Historic Areas for the Education of Citizens and for Field Studies by Students. However, little information about these plans is provided in the nomination dossier. They include the establishment of long-term plans, the strengthening of measures against forest fires, floods, and other natural calamities, a scientific research programme, including archaeological excavations, and a policy of seeking systematic investment and site-management proposals that are eco-friendly and consistent with world-class tourist policies. In addition there are programmes for regular conservation and maintenance of sculptural and monumental antiquities and for selective restoration, based on thorough prior scientific research. There are proposals for the purchase of private land adjoining the protected areas which are known to contain significant archaeological evidence. Regular monitoring will be carried out on the open sites, to check any illegal use of the land for unauthorized burials or shamanistic rites. Parking facilities are to be extended and marked paths laid out so as to prevent uncontrolled access to the land.