Kanghwa Dolmen

This huge rocks which is biotite gneiss, is the most famous dolmen in south korea. You can drive from seoul to kanghwa island, across the kanghwa bridge. It is located at bugunri, 6Km away from kanghwa village to the west, you can find the parking place on the way.

There are three typical dolmens in korea ; Northern style looks like a table, Southern style looks like a baduk (korean chess) board, and Cover stone style looks like a cover of the kettle was found in all over the country. This is a typical northern style which was constructed by 5 stone plates ; 2 mainly supporting prop stones and 2 end (head and tail) stones and 1 large cover stone. Couples of 4 prop stones were lost, just two prop stones survived now, which was inclined to the southeast at an angle of 20 degrees.

7.1m long and 5.5m wide capstone (about 50 tons) was covered on the two supporting prop stones ; 4.2m long, 1.3m high and 60Cm thick, so 2.6m high in all. I think it looks like a house in which ancient people at that age lived, born and died. So this shape come from the prehistoric ancient house ; there was a excavation of the resident place in Broze Age at Zomgol near here,

A large prop stone plate, measures 3m x 2m x 40Cm, is inclined to the east at an angle of 20 degrees. If all stones were survived, it probably would be similar to 'kanghwa dolmen'. (photo taken in 1989, Dec 1996, written in Jan 1997)

Dolmen at Zomgol

"The dolmen is lopsided from the west to the east because the stone that supports the cover stone at the east end has fallen down. The cover stone, which is biotite gneiss, is 4.28m in the length. The stone that blocks the southern end has been lost. " (quatation from the information board) (photo taken in Dec 1996, written in Jan 1997)