The Poseokjeong (Pavilion of Stone Abalone) site near Namsan in Gyeongju,

Gyeongsangbuk-do North Gyeongsang Province ( ko, 경상북도, translit=Gyeongsangbuk-do, ) is a province in eastern South Korea. The province was formed in 1896 from the northern half of the former Gyeongsang province, and remained a province of Korea until the ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

, was built in the

Unified Silla Unified Silla, or Late Silla (, ), is the name often applied to the Korean kingdom of Silla, one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, after 668 CE. In the 7th century, a Silla–Tang alliance conquered Baekje and the southern part of Goguryeo in the ...

period. The site once featured a royal pavilion — said to have been the most beautiful royal villa of the time — but the only remains today is a granite water feature. This abalone-shaped watercourse highlights the importance of water in traditional Korean gardens. The "Poseokjeong" consists of several hand-carved stone pieces. These pieces create very geometric shape and it sloped slightly for the smooth water flow. At that time, people gathered around the Poseokjeong. They floated their cups (for alcohol) and when the cup stops at a person, he should drink and recite a poem. During banquets in the last days of the

kingdom, the king's official and noble guests would engage in winding stream parties, sitting along the watercourse, chatting and reciting poetry, engaged in drinking games. One of the guests would start by enunciating a line of poetry, challenge one of the other guests to compose an appropriate second line while floating of cup wine in the water. Due to the variety of curves in the channel, the speed the wine cups transversed the course was influenced by the shape of the cup, rate of the water flow and the level of the wine in the cup. Should the cup of wine reach the guest before he could submit a suitable subsequent line he must consume that entire cup of wine and try again, and again, until the task was accomplished. The site has an area of 7,432 m²/4.6 mi². There are no records of when Poseokjeong was built, but the stone channel is known to have been created in the time of

. It was designated as historic site No.1 in 1963. Poseokjeong is named after the abalone-shaped water feature. The feature itself is about 10.3 m/11.2 yd in length and 5 m/5.4 yd in width, and consists of 63 blocks of granite. These blocks are on average 26 cm/10.2 in deep and 35 cm/13.8 in wide.

Zelkova ''Zelkova'' (from Georgian ''dzelkva'', 'stone pillar') is a genus of six species of deciduous trees in the elm family Ulmaceae, native to southern Europe, and southwest and eastern Asia. They vary in size from shrubs (''Z. sicula'') to large ...

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden accepts ...

and

bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of evergreen perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family. The origin of the word "bamboo" is uncertain, ...

trees preserve a calm atmosphere at Poseokjeong today, but the garden was tended differently at the time. Some of the trees are several hundred years old. When still in use, the watercourse is thought to have used water from the nearby stream in the Namsan valley. The water of the Namsan valley was appreciated by the Silla people for its purity and cleanliness. A stone turtle once spewed the water, but this feature does not remain today. A legend is linked with Poseokjeong. According to this legend, the spirit of Namsan attended a party of king Heong-gang Wang. The king danced after the god, which according to the legend started a Silla dance known as (King Dances, God Dances). King Gyeong-ae Wang (924-927) was killed at Poseokjeong, while indulging in his pleasures here, by Gyeonhwon of later

Baekje Baekje or Paekche (, ) was a Korean kingdom located in southwestern Korea from 18 BC to 660 AD. It was one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, together with Goguryeo and Silla. Baekje was founded by Onjo, the third son of Goguryeo's founder Jum ...

. Il-yeon: ''Samguk Yusa: Legends and History of the Three Kingdoms of Ancient Korea'', translated by Tae-Hung Ha and Grafton K. Mintz. Book Two, page 113 and also 127f. Silk Pagoda (2006). For that reason Poseokjeong stands symbolically for the demise of the Silla kingdom.

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File:Korea-Gyeongju-Poseokjeong site 3833-06.JPG File:Korea-Gyeongju-Poseokjeong site 3834-06.JPG

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