Wolseong Palace

There was a great palace built by King Pasa in 101 in Gyeongju called Wolseong and it was also called Jaeseong meaning a king's residential palace. Ever since, the succeeding kings made the castle their residence until it was destroyed when the Silla rulers were ousted. Only a few remnants remain from the palace such as corner stones that the pillars from the buildings layed on. You could walk the grounds of where the palace once stood and see where the buildings were as you see in the first two pictures.
The only building that remains is the Seokbinggo, the ice storage. We went to Gyeongju for our 1st year wedding anniversary which was July 7th and it was extremely hot that weekend. We walked for 4 hours touring the sites and had to go back to our hostel to shower and change since we were soaking wet. When we climbed down to the gate of the ice storage the tempature dropped dramatically to the point where it was almost too cold and there wasn't even ice in it. The building was 3/4 below ground and was really damp. I bet the kings took breaks from the hot days in there, I know I would.
Close to the palace grounds is the Cheomseongdae which was built during the reign of Silla Queen Seondeok between 632 and 647 and is the oldest astronomical observatory in East Asia. the observatory is 5.17 meters in diameter and 9.4 meters in hight. The bottle-shaped tower made of square granite stones stands on the square stone base. The lenght of the stone base is 5.25 meters. Up to the 12 layer from the bottom, this hollow tower was filled with soil and pebbles. Between the 13th and 15th layer, there is a square opening through which an observer can ascend to the top.