The site of Anhak Palace, a royal palace of Koguryo, covers a large area of Anhak-dong, Taesong District, Pyongyang City.
It was built when the capital of Koguryo moved from present-day Jian, Jilin to Pyongyang. Anhak Palace was for normal times, while Fort on Mt. Taesong was for emergency.
The palace site is surrounded by earthen castle walls. Each side of the square castle is 622 meters. The area of the site is as large as about 380 000㎡. In the castle, 52 palaces stand with the eaves facing one another on the total floor space of 31 458㎡.
A moat was dug outside around the walls of the castle to reinforce the defence. There were three castle gates on the southern wall and one on the eastern, western and northern walls each.
The palaces in the castle were disposed along the north-south central axis.
The palaces constituted five architectural groups ― outer palace, inner palace, bedchamber palace, eastern palace and western palace.
The outer palace was for great state ceremonies and the inner palace was for ordinary state affairs. The bedchamber palace was the king’s dwelling place.
The eastern palace was the Crown prince’s palace, and in the western palace were people serving in the palace and administration facilities. In the palace castle were laid out ponds in various sizes and gardens with artificial slopes. The site of Anhak Palace gives us a glimpse into the excellent architecture of that time. Such system of Koguryo’s royal palaces was introduced into Paekje and Silla, the countries of the same blood, and the later feudal royal palaces of our country.
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