Artworks

Ch’ŏmsŏngdae observatory

Artwork · Anonymous · 632–647 · building

The bottle-shaped astronomical observatory built in Kyŏngju under Queen Seondeok of Silla (r. 632–647): 9 m high, of 364 stone blocks in 27 courses — thought the oldest existing observatory in East Asia. Its round body and square top follow the Chinese “round heaven, square earth”; a south-facing window lets sunlight fall to the floor at the equinoxes. 1 Portal 2000, pp. 70–71, fig. 36. ↩ Literatur Portal 2000: Jane Portal, Korea: Art and Archaeology, London: British Museum Press 2000.