Gyeongbokgung Palace

This is a palace from the Joseon Dynasty, circa 1395. It used to cover a massive amount of territory with 3/5 of its area extending into what is now North Korea.

This palace has been destroyed twice by the Japanese: once during the Japanese Invasion of 1592, and again during World War II.

This palace is the birthplace of the Korean alphabet, known as Hangul, which was created over a eight-year period and officially proclaimed in 1446. Prior to this time, Chinese was the official written language although Hangul was spoken. To this day in Korea, many signs appear in both Hangul and Chinese.