Kayla's South Korean Adventure: National Museum of Korea

I went to the National Museum of Korea for the first time, and most likely will not be my last time. The museum is free so that is awesome. I love free activities. A few fun facts, which are on the pamphlet/map: it was founded on December 3, 1954; it was renamed the National Museum of Korea on July 19, 1972; it was constructed in Yongsan on October 28, 2005; the size of the main building is 404x186x43.08 meters; the total collection has 300,000 pieces with 15,000 of them on display; there are 67 national treasures, 131 general treasures, and 4 folklore assets. The museum is the sixth largest museum in the world, in terms of floor space. And with this amount of space, we were only able to see about 1/4 of the museum. We definitely will have to go there again to see the rest of the museum.

We started at the beginning, the Paleolithic period and went to the Medieval period. We ended just before the Joseon Dynasty, which is the most well known in Korean history. So next time, we will start there. The museum was gorgeous. Just before you walk into the museum, there is the Reflecting Pond that has a Pavilion. There is also an awesome view of N Seoul Tower and Seoul from the building.

The Reflecting Pond and Pavilion with the Museum in the back

Seoul with N Seoul Tower

We saw a lot of stuff but there were two things I liked the best. There was the Gold Crown which is National Treasure of Korea No. 191. It had an entire room to itself. When we first walked into the room, we were both amazed. It was made in the fifth century during the Silla Kingdon.

Gold Crown

Another thing was the ten-story pagoda in the hall of the museum. It is the National Treasure of Korea No. 86. It's official name is the "Gyeongcheonsa Ten-Story Pagoda." It was originally built at a monastery in Gyeongcheonsa in 1348. In 1907 it was illegally smuggled into Japan by Japanese officials but was returned in 1918.

Ten-Story Pagoda

We also went out to look at the outdoor exhibit. There were more pagodas, but there was also a really pretty pond that has a small waterfall named the Dragon Falls. It was pretty small but the area was beautiful.