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Gochang, Hwasun and Ganghwa Dolmen Sites

Korea, Republic of
Date of Inscription: 2000
Criteria: (iii)
Koch’ang-gun County, Chollabuk-do Province; Hwasun-gun County, Chollanam-do Province; Kangwha-gun County, Inch’on Province
N34 58 0.012 E126 55 45.012
Ref: 977

Brief Description

The prehistoric cemeteries at Gochang, Hwasun, and Ganghwa contain many hundreds of examples of dolmens - tombs from the 1st millennium BC constructed of large stone slabs. They form part of the Megalithic culture, found in many parts of the world, but nowhere in such a concentrated form.

Justification for Inscription

Criterion iii The global prehistoric technological and social phenomenon that resulted in the appearance in the 2nd and 3rd millennia BCE of funerary and ritual monuments constructed of large stones (the “Megalithic Culture”) is nowhere more vividly illustrated than in the dolmen cemeteries of Koch’ang, Hwasun, and Kangwha.