King Ko Kuk Won’s Mausoleum that is also called as Anak Tomb No. 3 is the Koguryo tomb with mural painting built in the middle of the 4th century.
It is the precious national cultural heritage which is the first in its scale and affluence of contents of the murals of all the Koguryo kings’ mausoleum.
King Ko Kuk Won’s Mausoleum resemblance to the underground palace demonstrates the might of Koguryo and height of its culture as it is the world greatest heritage representative of the culture in the east in the 4th century. It is the tomb which has the annexes with the figure paintings.
A heap of the tomb is large trapezium, and it is approximately 33 metres from the south to the north, approximately 30 metres from the east to the west and 6 metres in height. The heap of the tomb itself is large but its appearance is magnificent like mountains as it is located on the mountain. The chamber of the tomb was built by piling up the stones after cutting out the hill and it is composed of a gateway, fore chamber, two annexes in the east and the west of the fore chamber, interior chamber and corridor.
The gate of the tomb is in the southern side of its gateway and it is blocked by placing a plate stone against it. The gateway is 2.17 metres long from the east to the west, 2.12 metres wide from the south to the north and 3.48 metres high.
Two pieces of stone doors are fixed at the entrance of the gateway to the fore chamber. Each of stone doors is 2. 43 metres high, 76. 5-75cm wide and they can be lightly opened and closed with a hand though it weighs 500 kg.
Form of its ceiling is the paralleled triangular supports. The fore chamber is 4. 88 metres long from the east to the west, 2. 73 metres wide from the south to the north and 3. 47 metres high.
In the east and the west of the fore chamber, there are the annexes to the fore chamber. The annexe in the east is 1. 22-1. 27 metres long from the east to the west, 2. 99 metres wide from the south to the north and 2. 97 metres high. The annexe in the west is 1. 7 metres long from the east to the west. 3. 13-3. 23 metres wide from the south to the north and 2. 7 metres high.
There are 3 octagonal pillars between the fore and interior chambers and 4 square pillars at the entrances of annexes and corridor.
The interior chamber is 3. 8 metres long from the east to the west, 3. 32 metres wide from the south to the north and 2. 8 metres high. “L”-shaped corridor is laid from the east to the north of the interior chamber. The corridor is 10. 13 metres long, 0. 69-0.87 metres wide and 2. 5 metres high.
The complicated structure of the chambers of the tomb was originated from the design to copy the dwellings of Koguryo king and aristocracies as they were.
The tomb proves the superior skill of processing stones. Every side of different chambers of the tomb was made by building almost one piece of plate stone and two pieces of stone door that weighs 500 kg each were hung to be opened and closed smoothly; these demonstrate high stone-processing skill.
The murals were drawn on the stone wall.
In the gateway, a guard escorting the king buried in the tomb was drawn and the scenes including the guards of honor and the scenes of song and dance were drawn in the fore chamber.
In the western annexe, a scene in which the king, a hero dressed in fine silks leads the civil and military officials to manage state affairs and a scene of a queen among the waiting-maids were drawn. Kitchen, meat store, well, a mill, a cowshed, a stable and etc. were drawn in the eastern annexe. In corridor, a picture of king's long procession in which the Koguryo king advancing majestically under the escort of standard-bearers, all officers, civil and military and warriors was drawn.
Every mural has its own drawing skill.
Wonderful among the murals are the pictures depicting hero.
A picture of hero is the precious one proving long origin of portrait in Korea although it has a limitation of a time applying the rule of the grade of ranks in which the size of portrait was different from each other according to the level of status. The picture of procession, too, skillfully depicted by applying the technique of a bird’s-eye-view in which the several rows of complicated columns of procession overlapped each other. The mural demonstrates the fact that the technique of drawings was further developed at that time and it ranks first among the tomb murals in Korea in number of the characters over 250, scale of mural, complicated and colorful content, furthermore, it serves as the best masterpiece holding the important position in the world history of fine arts.
The mausoleum is the precious cultural heritage showing history, custom, architecture, drawing, music, dance, armament and etc. through the structure of the chamber and the content of the murals.
