East and West Three-Story Stone Pagodas of the (Presumed) Yeombulsa Temple Site in, Gyeongju

This pair of stone pagodas are typical of pagodas from the Unified Silla period (668-935). The pagodas had long been collapsed and were repaired and reassembled in 2009 and following archaeological surveys of the site from 2003 to 2008. During the repairs, some new stones were used for the parts of the pagodas that could not be found.

The pagodas are similar in design and size. They consist of a square platform, a two-tier base, three body and roof sections, and a decorative top.

In the Silla kingdom, it was common to place a pair of pagodas in front of the main worship hall of a Buddhist temple. The area where these pagodas are located is presumed to be the site of a temple called Yeombulsa, meaning "Temple of Buddhist Prayer. "A story about this name is recorded in the Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms (Samguk yusa), which states that there once lived a mystical Buddhist monk at the temple whose chanting could be heard throughout all of the ancient Silla capital. After his death, the temple was renamed Yeombulsa in his memory.

Source: Korea Heritage Service signboard ↗ · collected 2026-10-08