What are historic sites and what kinds of cultural properties are designated as historic sites?

• Historic sites refer to particularly commemorable sites and facilities with outstanding historic or academic value, including prehistoric ruins, fortresses, ancient tombs, kiln sites, dolmens, temple sites and shell mounds. Historic sites are designated by the Administrator of the Cultural Heritage Administration after the review of the Cultural Heritage Committee. The representative historic sites include:

• Hwaseong Fortress, Suwon (Historic Site No. 3) was designed by Yu Hyeong-won and Jeong Yak-yong, scholars of the Joseon Dynasty, in the 18th year of King Jeongjo’s reign (1794). The fortress was constructed with scientific equipment such as geojunggi, Korean traditional crane, and completed in 1796. It is one of our valuable cultural properties, included in the UNESCO World Heritage List in December 1997.
• Earthen Fortification in Pungnap-dong, Seoul (Historic Site No. 11), commonly known as Pungnaptoseong Fortress, is a clay wall built around the Han River in early Baekje. Originally the wall spanned a distance of as far as four kilometers, but with its southwestern part broken off by the floods of 1925, it is now 2.7 kilometers long.
• There are other historic sites such as Archaeological Site in Bonghwang-dong, Gimhae (Historic Site No. 2), Hwangnyongsa Temple Site, Gyeongju (Historic Site No. 6), and Hanyang City Wall, Seoul (Historic Site No. 10).