Mangsan Bongsu Archaeological Site, Ganghwa

Basic information

Designation

Historic Site No.572-6

Category

Sites & Pagodas

Era

조선시대

Designated year

2023

Location

강화군, 인천광역시— 인천광역시 강화군 내가면 외포리 산 131 일원

Coordinates

37.711833, 126.375761Kakao address conversion

This English description was machine-translated and may contain inaccuracies. Refer to the original Korean text for details.

The 'bongsu (烽燧)', the communication system of the Joseon Dynasty, was installed to notify the central Ministry of War (Byeongjo) and local administrative centers (eupchi) of enemy invasions through fire signals at night and smoke signals during the day, according to agreed-upon signaling protocols. The network originated from major endpoints in the north and south and converged at Mokmyeoksan in Seoul (present-day Namsan). According to the Revised and Supplemented Comprehensive Repository of Documents (증보문헌비고, 1908), the late Joseon central government operated 5 direct beacon lines (jikbong) and 23 auxiliary beacon lines (ganbong), with a total of 622 beacons throughout all routes. Among these, the "Second Direct Beacon Line (제2로 직봉)" connecting Busan's Eungbong to Seoul's Mokmyeoksan Second Beacon, and the "Fifth Direct Beacon Line (제5로 직봉)" connecting Dolsan Island in Yeosu, South Jeolla Province to Seoul's Mokmyeoksan Fifth Beacon are located in South Korea, while the remaining three direct beacon lines are located in North Korea. * Ganbong (間峯): beacons located on auxiliary routes established to compensate for potential breaks in direct beacon lines. During the Joseon Dynasty, Japanese pirates (waegu) utilized maritime routes to invade not only inland areas of the southern coast near Tsushima but also distant regions such as Ganghwa Island. The majority of beacons on the "Fifth Direct Beacon Line" were strategically positioned to monitor the sea routes through which these Japanese pirates infiltrated, and under the management of naval commanders (susa), they functioned primarily as fortifications (yosaek). This distinguishes them from the "Second Direct Beacon Line," which was previously designated as a historic site and operated under the management of military commanders (byeongsa) primarily for the purpose of urgent communication (geupbo).

Location