The city of Gyeongju (Kyongju) is more than 2,000 years old and contains most of the historic remains of Korea's 5,000 year history. For about a thousand years between 57 B.C. and 935 A.D. it was the capital of the Shilla dynasty, the greatest to flourish among the Three Kingdoms of the Korean peninsula at that time.

After the unification of the Korean peninsula in the mid-7th century, Gyeongju became the center of Korean political and cultural life. The city was home to the Shilla Dynasty court, and the great majority of the kingdom's elite. Its prosperity became legendary, renowned as far away as Egypt. During its peak, the population probably exceeded one million.