Nari Basin is a basin in

Ulleungdo Ulleungdo (also spelled Ulreungdo; Hangul: , ) is a South Korean island 120 km (75 mi) east of the Korean Peninsula in the Sea of Japan, formerly known as the Dagelet Island or Argonaut Island in Europe. Volcanic in origin, the rocky s ...

, South Korea, and is just under

Seonginbong Seonginbong (성인봉) is a mountain located on the South Korean island of Ulleungdo, in North Gyeongsang Province North Gyeongsang Province ( ko, 경상북도, translit=Gyeongsangbuk-do, ) is a province in eastern South Korea. The province wa ...

. The Nari basin is made by Seonginbong’s past volcanic activity and is a

caldera A caldera ( ) is a large cauldron-like hollow that forms shortly after the emptying of a magma chamber in a volcano eruption. When large volumes of magma are erupted over a short time, structural support for the rock above the magma chamber is ...

. Thousands of years ago, there was a huge volcanic activity in Seonginbong and after that, the underneath part subsided and the Nari basin was formed. The Seonginbong is now an

inactive volcano A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates are ...

and these days, people live in the basin and grow crops.

The origin of the name

People lived in the basin since the Usan-guk era. But in the

Joseon Joseon (; ; Middle Korean: 됴ᇢ〯션〮 Dyǒw syéon or 됴ᇢ〯션〯 Dyǒw syěon), officially the Great Joseon (; ), was the last dynastic kingdom of Korea, lasting just over 500 years. It was founded by Yi Seong-gye in July 1392 and re ...

dynasty, King

Taejong Taejong of Joseon (13 June 1367 – 8 June 1422), personal name Yi Bang-won (Korean: 이방원; Hanja: 李芳遠), was the third ruler of the Joseon dynasty of Korea and the father of King Sejong the Great. Before ascending to the throne, he wa ...

announced a policy to the people who had lived there to empty the Ulleungdo. About 450 years later, when King Gojong held sway over Joseon, the island was cultivated again. The name ‘Nari’ was called as it is because the people who lived in the basin a long time ago prolonged their lives by digging up the roots of the plant ‘seommalnari (Ulleungdo turk’s-cap lily, Lilium hansonii)’. As people have named the basin in Chinese characters : by recognizing the basin as ‘a beautiful village like silk’, but the ‘nari’s are still growing a lot in the basin area. Around 500 people (93 houses) lived in the Nari-dong(village) when it was cultivated again in the late 1800s.

General information

The basin has a cover area of 1.5-2.0 square kilometers, about 1.5 km from east to west, and about 2.0 km from south to north. Nari basin is a crater basin formed by the collapse of the northern part of Seonginbong(984m)'s caldera, within the eruption of Albong(611m) and the lava from Albong separated into two crater basins. The northeastern part is called the Nari village and the southwestern part is called Albong village where no people live in. The Basin is surrounded by somma, and the Seonginbong is the highest peak of the somma and also the highest peak of Ulleungdo. The Tumakjip houses in Nari are built with Ulleungdo hemlock (Tsuga diversifolia) and Engler’s beech (Fagus engleriana), shaping them in a hash sign with soil attached in between. The Gyeongbuk province designated 4 Tumakjip houses in Nari to be protected as cultural assets.

Tourist attractions

Famous tourists attractions in Nari basin : shingle-roofed houses, Tumakjip houses, Sillyeongsu saengtae-gil(road), Albong, Ulleungdo thyme (Thymus quinquecostatus) Habitat, Yongchulso, Sinryeongsu, Natural monument in Nari basin : Ulleung dendranthema (Dendranthema zawadskii)

References

External links

* {{coord missing, South Korea Calderas of Asia Ulleung County Landforms of North Gyeongsang Province