Ancient Tombs...

The small city of Gongju is located about one hour east of Taejon and, about 1500 years ago, was the capital of one of the kingdoms of Korea. Brian and I explored the city on Thursday (we played hookie and used a personal day to get away, just the two of us!). The tombs were fascinating and were built on a mountainside using methods that surfaced in several other ancient kingdoms in the world (isn't it amazing how there were so many similarities between the customs of ancient peoples who had no contact with each other? It speaks to God's grand design, I think!). They were domed chambers built of stone and brick, covered with earth and grass. So, from the outside, they look like big bumps on the mountainside. All of the tombs but one were plundered in days gone by, and all of the artifacts were carried off. One, however, wasn't discovered until 1971 and it was fully intact, giving archaeologists great insight into the wealth and lifestyle of the Baekje kingdom. We learned so much from our day of exploring. Perhaps we - and our students - should get out of the classroom more often!!