Gyeongju city is the cultural capital of South Korea. It was the capital of the Silla kingdom for almost a 1000 years! I visited Gyeongju more than 10 times to experience the history and it's beauty in all seasons, but could experience only a fraction of what this city would offer. My first visit was in early May 2017 with a close friend Babu George, who was two years senior to me during our undergraduate engineering studies, and the city was crowded with visitors. Babu was stationed at the DSME shipyard, Geoje island, close to my home: 15 minutes by drive. I reached Korea towards the end of March 2017, and Babu's presence helped me settle down in the island pretty fast. We used to hang around during the weekends and the trip to Gyeongju was the very first one immediately after receiving the company car. It was a fantastic road trip for the first time in Korea with an overnight stay in a Korean traditional Hanok (house).
During this visit, we came across the Cheomseongdae. Whenever I visited Gyeongju afterwards, I made it a point to visit the Cheomseongdae ( 瞻星臺 - Lookup，Star， platform: means a star gazing platform), one of my favorite locations. Known as the oldest astronomical observatory in Asia, Cheomseongdae has much controversy surrounding this claim. The disagreement is regarding the exact use of Cheomseongdae. Some historians say that it was an astronomical observatory. Another group says that it showed the meridian line at a time when compasses were not yet available. Still others say that this was just a symbolic representation of an astronomical observatory.
The structure has three distinctive sections - (1) a rectangular foundation (2) twenty-seven levels of stacked stones in a cylindrical shape (3) top level stones in the shape of the Chinese character for "well" (井). There is a square window on the south side, presumably for people to enter via a ladder. The inside was filled up with dirt up to the height of this window. All together there are 361-and-a-half stones, which is about the same number of days in a lunar calendar year. Including the rectangular group of stones on the top, there are twenty eight levels of stones that correspond to the 28 mansions in the Chinese constellations system. The twelve levels of stone below the square window are thought to indicate the 12 months and 24 divisions (solar terms) of the lunar year. Refer to the table included below for more details on the mansions and solar terms.
The stones at the top point precisely towards the four cardinal directions. As the window in the middle exactly faces the south, the sunlight completely shines down to the floor of the Cheomseongdae during the spring and autumnal equinox days. The light completely disappears during the summer and winter solstices.
Cheomseongdae is 9.108 m tall, and its lower and upper diameters are 4.93 m and 2.85 m, respectively. It was constructed during the reign of the 27th heir to the throne, Queen Seondeok, 632-647 A.D.
As for me, it is a beautiful piece of art in addition to the many symbols and scientific aspects that are depicted by ancient scholars. I thoroughly enjoyed photographing the Cheomseondae in different seasons from different view points, with a variety of seasonal flowers posing for perfect picture frames.
Thanks Bindu chechi
Wow !!! Beautiful and very colourful gardens.