The Walled City of Pyongyang
In 427 Koguryo moved its capital to Pyongyang which had more advantageous conditions and planned to build a new walled city on the basis of the lessons of capital defence in the past and the increased national power. It built the Walled City of Pyongyang, a new capital totally surrounded with walls, between 552 and 586.
The Walled City of Pyongyang was situated in an advantageous area where its northern part has Mt. Kumsu and its eastern, western and southern parts are surrounded with the Rivers Taedong and Pothong, forming a natural moat.
The walled city is about 16 kilometres round.
Researcher Kim Kwang Song at the Archaeology Institute under the Academy of Social Sciences said the Walled City of Pyongyang is just a new walled capital combining the advantages of walls on mountain and those of walls on flatland, and continued:
"Walls were built inside the Walled City of Pyongyang to divide it into four parts, i.e. the inner, central, outer and northern forts.
The total length of the wall including that of those forts is around 23 kilometres.
There were several general's terraces in the places with fine outlook in the Walled City of Pyongyang. Typical of them are Ulmil Pavilion in the inner fort and Choesung Pavilion in the northern fort."
The Walled City of Pyongyang is considered to be a valuable cultural heritage which shows well the history and culture of Koguryo, the capital system and its development in the late period of Koguryo and the wisdom and talents of the Koguryo people.