Natural Environment Protection and Restoration of Historic Landscaping Works For Preserving The Ancient City of Gyeongju

This paper looks into how to preserve Gyeongju's natural environment and to restore its historic landscaping works, one of the greate factor that compose ancient city as a way of wisely preserving Gyeongju, one of the oldest cities of Korea. Gyeongju, a city based in its natural environment, is formated inside of a basin of mountains and streams. Mountains and streams are the major two factors when on thinks of preserving the ancient city of Gyeongju. Four mountains surrounding the city play a direct role in marking coordinates of major city landmarks, while streams influence the structure and formation of the city in a great deal. More precisely, mountains should be able to be seen from the center of the city and streams should be restored in a way that they can serve as scenic identities of their time. Efforts should also be put into restoring such elements as ancient gardens, royal forests and water ways. The research team believes that such efforts themselves will be a great methods in reclaiming historic values and significance of places of Gyeongju. Restoring an ancient city is not limited merely restoring a city in an artificial concept, it reaches to preserving natural environment as a backdrop of the city and traces of landscaping works. When it comes to restoring an ancient city, one must understand that preserving natural environment and historic landscaping works are as valuable as restoring city structure or constructional elements. We believe that defining subjects of ancient city restoration must be more precise, clear and detail down the road.