Korea is riddled with so many mountains and hiking trails it is a popular pastime and part of the national culture. However, I'm not a big hiking fan and have tried to avoid it where I can. Gyeongju's Mt Namsan is a worthwhile exception due to the abundance of Buddhist carvings and sacred sites and is a rewarding experience for even a novice hiker.

Biking along Mt Namsan in Gyeongju (see previous entry) I was passing many signs for the hiking trail on Mt Namsan. Many of the interesting sites on the map of Mt Namsan are not accessible from ground level and involve some hiking. As I had a bike and didnt plan on hiking I was trying to visit the more accessible places.

After passing a cluster of temples (see previous entry) there were signs leading to more Royal tombs and another temple. There was a path leading in from the street to a hiking trail and a guards hut beside.

He told me I couldnt take my bike but as he could speak some english he explained about a km away were several of the buddhist carvings. As they seemed easy to get to and close together I decided to hike up and take a look

The base of the trail will pass by another three Royal Tombs. Then the hiking trail begins into the mountain. It is partially paved, well travelled, and active with many hikers.

There were regular sign markers about every 100m to indicate the distance and direction to significant landmarks. On the trail was a headless Buddha about 500m in.

There was a hermitage I was trying to get to which is actually a branch off point from the main trail. Its not too far of a detour but involves some rock climbing to ascend to the actual spot.

Here was a lone person in silent meditation by the seated Buddha. It was located in its own oval halo atop a rock staircase. Behind was another dark cave

It took about a km of hiking to get to this point and I didnt want to go further up as I had been biking today and already visited Golgulsa Temple in the morning (see two entries back) so didnt want to exhaust myself.

Returning back down on the main path there was another turning point that I had chosen to ignore on the way up so as not to wander off too much. This was to a set of two triplet carvings of Buddhas.

These were again a short detour off the main trail but quite interesting. A long rock surface had two sets of three Buddha's carved into the wall

They were very worn and it wasnt easy to clearly see the outlines of all six figures.

The trail is rather interesting and quite easy to reach. 500 series city buses will pass by the street outside which has a very large parking lot for visitors. There is an information booth at the base where the guy spoke some english and gave me an english map to the mountain trail.

If I had more time and hadnt done so much today it a rather easy trail to hike in comparative terms to other trails. It is very heavily travelled and the trail tries to pass as close as possibly to the major sites.

If I continued there were several more such Buddhist carvings to discover but perhaps for another day when I havent done so much already. Look for signs to the Samneung Royal Tombs when going south on the western side of Mt Namsan when coming from the city centre.