Najeong Well, Gyeongju

Basic information

Designation

Historic Site No.245

Category

Architecture

Era

신라

Designated year

1975

Location

경주시, 경상북도— 경북 경주시 탑동 700-1번지

Coordinates

35.815875, 129.212631

This well is associated with the legend of the birth of Park Hyeokgeose, the founder of Silla. Before the Silla Dynasty, Gyeongju belonged to Jinhan and was divided into six villages and governed by six heads of the villages. One of them, Lord Sobeoldori, the head of Goheo Village, one day spotted a white horse kneeling down and crying beside a well at the foot of Yangsan Mountain. As he approached closer, he noticed a huge egg giving out brilliant light. When a baby boy hatched out, he deemed the boy as one sent by heaven and raised him with care. He gave the boy the last name Park (which has the same pronunciation as the Chinese word for 'gourd'), because the boy was hatched from an egg that looked like a gourd. He gave him the name Hyeokgeose, which meant his hope that that the boy would make the world splendid. In his 13th year, that is 57 B.C., the boy Hyeokgeose founded Seorabeol and became king. The stele standing here was made in the 2nd year of the reign of King Sunjo (1802) of the Joseon Dynasty to commemorate King Park Hyeokgeose.

Location