Gyejoksanseong (계족산성)
This gorgeous Three Kingdoms Era fortress girds the very top of Gyejok “Chicken’s Foot” Mountain, with a phenomenal view of the modern city of Daejon. Apparently there remains a bit of controversy over exactly who built this fortress, its location making it certainly a late Baekje construction, but pottery finds within indicating it might have had a Silla origin. While the archaeologists fight that out, I will say it has a more Baekje than Silla feel, with the walls built flush with the earth within and terracing on the outward faces of the exterior walls—though we did recently find terracing at an old Silla fortress just east of Gyeongju… Regardless of when it was built and by whom, today it remains a wonderful destination on a mountain famous for its hiking trails. Well worth the visit!
First views of Gyejoksanseong as we emerged from the densely wooded trail. It’s quite massive, especially approaching from downhill.
Typical of Three Kingdoms fortifications, the yawning, stone-lined South Gate leads into the end of this rectangular-shaped fortification.
The external terracing along the west wall as we entered the gate immediately reminded me of other Baekje Fortresses.
And, of course, the usual Korean Fortress builders’ regard for drainage is evident even here, at the very crest of the mountain.
Looking back on the South Gate from along the West Wall. The scenery to the south and north was fantastic. Due west one looks out over the sprawling city of Daejon, though visibility didn’t offer us much of a view on the day we visited.
The human figure atop the walls help provide some idea of how large these gates really are.
Signs along the trail had warned us there’d been some weather damage over the past few months. The more direct trail to the fortress was completely out of commission and so we walked quite a bit farther than expected to reach the top. Here one can see on-going efforts to repair the west wall and gate. Unfortunately, this meant we couldn’t make a full circuit of the fortress, but signs on the site indicate work should be done by October 2024…so we’ll probably be back!
This low stone wall well within the external walls once delineated the bounds of a signal beacon station, apparently in use all the way through to the Joseon Period.
So many trails had been damaged in the area we simply couldn’t get everywhere we wanted to on this trip, but the eastern walls, climbing the far slope, were clearly visible from the site of the old signal beacon.
This was the best, zoomed-in picture of those far walls I could get. Will try to do better next time…and hope to walk them myself!
Back to the terracing at the south gate, looking west.
And here looking east, including a partially collapsed section of the exterior wall.
From a small hillock we were able to get a bit wider view of Gyejoksanseong, at least that part of it visible from the short, southern end, the external terracing visible on both sides of the gate.