English   |   中文

World's Cultural Heritages in Kaesong City of DPRK (1)

         

Pyongyang, August 23 (KCNA) -- The Mausoleum of King Wang Kon and the Mausoleum of King Kongmin in Kaesong City, DPRK, were listed as world's cultural heritages in late June. The Mausoleum of King Wang Kon, founder of Koryo Kingdom (918-1392) known as Korea's first unified state, is located in Haeson-ri, Kaesong City. The mausoleum is a stone-chambered earth tomb. The mound is 8 meters high and has stone tigers in its four corners. In front of the tomb are a stone altar and a pair of stone posts. Standing on both sides of the mausoleum are stone sculptures of eight subjects who rendered distinguished services to the state building. There is a stone door to the chamber, which has well-preserved mural paintings of bamboos and pine trees on its eastern, western and northern walls. Kongmin was the 31st king of Koryo. The Mausoleum of King Kongmin is twin stone-chambered earth tombs, one for the king and the other for the queen. Each tomb on dodecagonal stones, 40 meters long from east to west and 24 meters from north to south, is about 6.5 meters high and 13.7 meters across, framed with wall-like stones on which 12 spirits of terrain were engraved in relief. Standing on terraces in front of the mausoleum are statues of civil officials and military officers, four respectively on each side.