They include King Tongmyong’s mausoleum and over 60 tombs with murals including those in Tokhung-ri and Yaksu-ri. They are precious cultural wealth of the Korean nation showing its time-honored history and wisdom.

The tombs were built on hills and on flat areas. Murals were painted on ceilings and walls of loculus. A tomb consists of a loculus and a corridor leading to it. The floor of the tombs was tamped with river stones, sand, charcoal and lime. They have drainages.

The walls of the loculus were laid with well-trimmed stones, each weighing several tons at maximum. The outside walls were filled with small stones and covered with mixed clay, line and charcoal. The inside walls were plastered with slaked lime. The walls of some tombs were made with well-trimmed big stones or several plain rocks. The loculus sizes are different, the biggest covering 40 square meters. The shapes of ceilings are vaulted, octangle and quadrilateral.

Buried in the tombs were bodies and their favorites. Seen on the walls and ceilings are figure and genre paintings and four guardians. There are no cracks between flat stones and no change in the color of murals though a thousand and hundreds of years have passed. They clearly show the distinguished stone-processing and drawing skill of Koguryo people.

The Koguryo tombs with murals serve as valuable historical materials reflecting the then society. They are of great significance in studying the development of oriental culture in the Middle Ages, too.

(KCNA, July 19)