The Cultural Heritage Administration has embarked on a new project for reshaping the royal tombs of King Sejong and Hyojong into their original shape and improving its surrounding area befitting the site’s distinctive status as the royal tombs of the Joseon Dynasty, a UNESCO World Heritage. With adopting the Comprehensive Plan for Improving Yeongneung to be conducted from 2012 to 2016 with the total budget of 25.3 billion won, the CHA has started drafting the working design this year for implementing the plan concretely. The burial ground located in Yeoju, Gyeonggi Province, is in fact divided into two areas, one for King Sejong and his wife Queen Consort Soheon and the other for King Hyojong and his wife Queen Consort Inseon, both identically called Yeongneung using different Chinese characters. During the Japanese colonial period (1910-1945), the two Yeongneung went through a series of transformation in their landscape, ranging from the loss of Jaesil (storage pavilion) to partial damage of the stream and the brick-covered walkway running through between the entrance gate to the mounds, all of which to a certain extent resulted in a loss of their sacred and dignified elements and reverent atmosphere. In 2007, the management office of the royal tombs identified the site of Jaesil with excavation at the tomb of King Sejong and obtained complete study results it had entrusted in 2008 on relevant historic records. It also carried out a comprehensive research along with excavation and investigated on the entire area, thus discovering the original locations of the walkway, the stream, a lotus pond, Forbidden Stream Bridge and the red spike gate created in 1469 when the graves were relocated, along with the original ground of tombs and their surrounding area. Based on these research results, modern constructions and buildings either old or losing their original shape are going to be removed, which will subsequently be followed by the restoration of original topography and auxiliary facilities. The landscape of these tomb sites is going to be recovered also by vegetating indigenous trees and plants across the entire area. With relocating outside the site boundary the management office, ticket booths and an exhibition hall now under construction, the entirety of the original landscape is expected to be restored, and other facilities including toilets and information boards to be renovated as well as a newly built parking lot may better serve visitors’ convenience. At every phase of the project from designing to starting construction, an advisory committee comprised of experts from every field from cultural properties, architecture to arts will ascertain historical facts based on thorough examination.