Gyeongju is a marvelous city, the cradle of precious vestiges that embody the history and culture of Silla (57 B.C.-A.D. 935), the golden age of ancient Korean civilization. Now a modest city with a population of 270,000 (as of 2010), the old capital of Silla sustains the vibrant spirit and aura of the millennium-long kingdom, which attained a brilliant cultural flowering through the reigns of its 56 kings. Cultural Heritage Administration of Korea 

The Gyeongju Historic Areas contain a remarkable concentration of outstanding examples of Korean Buddhist art, in the form of sculptures, reliefs, pagodas, and the remains of temples and palaces from the flowering culture of Silla dynasty, in particular between the 7th and 10th century. The Korean peninsula was ruled for almost 1,000 years (57 BCE – 935 CE) by the Silla dynasty, and the sites and monuments in and around Gyeongju bear outstanding testimony to its cultural achievements. These monuments are of exceptional significance in the development of Buddhist and secular architecture in Korea. UNESCO