An ancient tomb
A king and his queen are buried here; an unexpected sight in a country where much of ancient history has been forgotten, ignored, rewritten or even erased.
Margaret of From Pyrenees to Pennines and Teresa of My Camera & I have both invited me to join them and other bloggers to post one favourite travel picture a day for ten days without explanation, then each day, nominate someone new to join in on the same terms. I don’t usually post a single photo on my blog; I like to tell a story. But for this challenge I’ll resist that temptation and instead play a guessing game with you all. So, does anyone know where this tomb is to be found?
And the answer is, the tomb of King Kongmin near Kaesong in North Korea. He was a 14th century Koryo dynasty ruler and is buried here with his wife the Mongolian princess Queen Noguk.
I realise not everyone likes to be nominated for this sort of thing so there’s no pressure to join in. But I wondered, Leya of To See a World in a Grain of Sand, if you’d like to have a go? Don’t feel you have to but do link back to this post if you do – I’d love to see your photos!
22 Comments
rosalieann37
THe comment about ancient history being destroyed would have led me to Russia, but the animals looked Oriental. I thought the Orient revered history for the most part so I wasn’t surprised that it was the outlier North Korea
Sarah Wilkie
Interesting analysis Rosalie as I guess North Korea does bring together elements of the Oriental in its ancient history with the Soviet in more recent times 🙂
Forestwood
I would not have known this one, even though I follow Albert’s blog so I probably should. It is hard not to peek at the comments.
Sarah Wilkie
Yes, I’m sure Albert must have posted about this. It was his first (2014) trip to North Korea that inspired our own 🙂
Forestwood
Is that right? He would be pleased to read that. He does an awfully good job of marketing the country as a destination.
Sarah Wilkie
Oh he knows – we’ve been good friends for some years despite living on the other side of the world! We were both members of the Virtual Tourist community and he first wrote about his DPRK trip on that website, which is where I read it. Since the website closed (2017) he’s reproduced and expanded on that material on his blog and I’m just starting to do the same here, having originally blogged about my trip on TravellersPoint.
Although the website itself closed down, the most active Virtual Tourist members have for the most part managed to stay connected and to meet up whenever possible. I wrote about our big Euromeets elsewhere in this blog (https://www.toonsarah-travels.blog/precious-moments-at-virtual-tourist-euromeets/) – Albert has never yet made it over for one of those but we’ve enjoyed smaller meets in London on a couple of his UK visits 😀
Forestwood
Oh that is fascinating to hear, Sarah. I started on VT many years ago, but didn’t keep it up when I started blogging. So great that they have meet ups and you were able to connect with people all over the world.
Sarah Wilkie
So you were a VTer too at one point Amanda! May I ask what your VT name was (if you remember it)?
Teresa
Wow, beautiful and interesting!
Sarah Wilkie
Thanks Teresa 🙂 I really liked it here and all the more so because it was unexpected. Some time I must get around to posting the full story of King Kongmin!
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Lesley
Has to be North Korea. Intriguing.
Sarah Wilkie
It is indeed 🙂
TheRamblingWombat
I know.. been there too.
Sarah Wilkie
And I know you know … 😆
Amy
This is a fun series, Sarah. Thank you for introducing this place.
margaret21
These look similar to, but not the same as royal tombs we saw in South Korea. So I’m going for that part of the world.
Sarah Wilkie
Ooh, you’re VERY close Margaret 😀 😀
margaret21
I await the answer …
Sarah Wilkie
You were only a few miles out. This is the tomb of King Kongmin near Kaesong in North Korea, just a short distance from the border with the South. He was a 14th century Koryo dynasty ruler and is buried here with his wife the Mongolian princess Queen Noguk. Much of North Korea’s early history was destroyed by US bombing in the Korean War, but Kaesong spent most of the war on the other side of the border so sites like this were preserved.
margaret21
Good. Both North and South have had to work hard to restore and protect their heritage over the years. An astonishing achievement.
Sarah Wilkie
To be honest there’s not much pre-Kim dynasty heritage in the North. A lot was destroyed in the war, as I said, and preserving what remains is less of a priority for the regime than preserving Kim-related sites such as birthplaces. I think they’re becoming more conscious of the value of their earlier history though. They are proud that a cluster of sites around Kaesong are UNESCO listed.