The beacon hill site in Mongmyeoksan (Mt.) (today's Namsan Mountain) was also known as Gyeongbongsu - literally 'beacon hill in the capital' - as it is located in Seoul, which was the final destination of all the beacon fires lit to warn of an enemy invasion approaching the border areas. The beacon system of Joseon was a form of long-distance communications system by which fires were lit and the smoke emitted on hills and mountain tops warned local people of an enemy raid and alerted the military defense; it also served to transmit news of an emergency in the border area to the government in the capital. Fire signals were used during the night and smoke signals during the day. The beacon signals from border areas were transmitted to the capital via one of the five beacon hills in Namsan. The first beacon hill received a signal that came from the northeastern province of Hamgyeong-do via the stations in Gangwon-do and in Achasan (Mt.) in Yangju; the second station received its signal from the southeastern province of Gyeongsang-do via the stations in Chungcheong-do and Cheollimsan (Mt.) in Gwangju; the third station's signal traveled from Ganggye, in the northwest province of Pyeongan-do, through Hwanghae-do and the East Peak of Muaksan (Mt.) in the capital; the fourth signal traveled from Uiju of Pyeongan-do through Haean of Hwanghae-do and the West Peak of Muaksan; and, finally, the fifth signal was transmitted from the southwestern province of Jeolla-do through the stations in Chungcheong-do and the one on Gaehwasan (Mt.) in Yangcheon. The beacon hill standing here is one of the five stations that originally stood in Namsan and was built in 1993 according to the related reference materials, such as Cheonggudo (Map of Blue Hills), by a great Joseon cartographer Kim Jeong-ho.

Type of Data Point - Publicly Available Information

Mongmyeoksan Beacon Hill Site - Public Info

Visit page of the element - Mongmyeoksan Beacon Hill Site

Inserted: 09-12-2022 07:12:43