On Sunday, we spent the whole day visiting historical sites in Gyeongju and they were incredible to explore. We started our day off by visiting Daereungwon. Daereungwon is a site with many ancient tombs of people from royal blood. The tombs are inside of hills and contain a ton of gold. One of the tombs that was excavated was available to enter, with replicas in the tomb and it was amazing. It was a huge area with tons of gold surrounding the casket. We walked around the area of the tomb for a while and saw tons of amazing gardens with ponds, and places where palaces used to be. We also got to see Cheomseongdae, which is the oldest astrological observatory in Asia. Later on, we got to see other ponds that were used for royal palaces in the area. Later on, we went to see the Gyeongju National Museum where there was tons of information about the Silla kingdom and tons of their relics.

After lunch, we visited two ancient temples areas. The first, the Bulguksa Buddhist Temple, was high up on a mountain. There was a certain section of the temple which is only open once a year to enter, and lucky for us, the day we were there was that day. Inside there was a giant Buddha statue and it was amazing to see how many people came to check the temple out. Outside the temple there was tons of lanterns of all colors which helped add to the environment of the temple. After seeing this temple we went to a lower spot on the same mountain to visit Seokguram. Here there are tons of temples with many statues and paintings of Buddha everywhere. There was an area with four different statues looking in all directions and I found that very interesting. I had a great time in Gyeongju and am excited for the rest of the trip.