History of Gyeongju - Silla Period

Silla Period

Gyeongju first enters non-Korean records during the Samhan period in the early Common Era. It is recorded in Chinese records as Saro-guk, one of twelve petty states which comprised the Jinhan confederacy. Saro-guk would later become the Silla kingdom. Korean records, probably based on the dynastic chronicles of Silla, record that Saro-guk was established in 57 BCE, when six small villages in the Gyeongju area united under Bak Hyeokgose, the kingdom's first ruler. During the Silla period, the city was called "Seorabeol" (서라벌; 西羅伐) that is assumed to mean Capital, "Gyerim which literally means Rooster's forest," or "Geumseong" (금성; 金成) that refers to "City of Gold".

After the unification of the peninsula up to Taedong River in 668 AD, Gyeongju became the center of Korean political and cultural life. The city was home to the Silla court, and the great majority of the kingdom's elite. Its prosperity became legendary, and was reported as far away as Persia according to the 9th century book, The Book of Roads and Kingdoms. Records of Samguk Yusa give the city's population in its peak period as 178,936 households, suggesting that the total population was almost one million. Many of Gyeongju's most famous sites date from this period, known as Unified Silla.

However, the city's prosperity proved short-lived. In the late 9th century the Silla kingdom declined and fell apart, giving way to the Later Three Kingdoms of Korea. In 927 Gyeongju was pillaged by Hubaekje, one of these later kingdoms. Shortly thereafter, King Gyeongsun surrendered his title and country to Taejo in 935, who then established the Goryeo dynasty. Gyeongju was no longer the capital of a united Korea, while Gaegyeong (modern-day Kaesong) took that title.