I visited this WHS in April 2017. I visited all the different locations spread out around Gyeongju over 2 half days which yielded no tangible appreciation from the sites themselves (apart from the oldest astronomical observatory). Each location of this WHS has a UNESCO stone marker. I'd recommend leaving some time for the impressive Silla collection at the National Museum of Gyeongju (free entrance).

However, I really wasn't that impressed by the ruins/sites in Gyeongju even though the gold Silla relics displayed in the Museum are exquisite. My perception changed after a full day of hiking from one hill to the next in Mt Namsan, hiring a taxi for the day to be able to cover more ground.

The Mt Namsan area is 8km long and 4km wide. It comprises Mt Geumo (468m high - peak reachable through a 4km trail), located to the south of the ancient Silla capital of Seorabeol, and Mt Gowi (494m high), including 40 mountain valleys. It really is somewhat of an open air museum with 112 temple sites, 80 Buddhist statues, 61 stupas, 22 standing stone lanterns, historic relics along with prehistoric relics and countless Buddhist remains and carvings born out of a marraige between Buddhist faith and the natural environment, epitomising Bulgukto, the ideal Buddhist land of the Silla people.

When arranging a taxi ride for the day, I was very lucky as the taxi driver happened to be collecting photos of several Buddhist carvings on his mobile phone so most of the time I only had to point at one of his photos for him to take me where I wanted. Moreover, he took me to other places I didn't even know about and most importantly he hiked with us to all the sites which proved to be a godsend as we would have never found our way as there were no hiking trails but only information boards exactly next to the engravings or statues.

We saw an infinite amount of stone pagodas but what were truly impressive for us were the rock-carved Buddhas. The first one worth mentioning is the Seated Yeorae Image carved on a rock boulder. Take good hiking shoes and be careful on your way down (skip this if it's raining!). Next we saw the 4.36m high stone seated Buddha of Mireukgok on the east slope of Namsan with a pear-shaped halo (photo). We proceeded to Borisa to see the Buddha carved on the rock surface, overlooking the Mangdeoksa Temple Site and with a panoramic view of the Namsan valleys. In the Bulgok valley, we took an unpaved road to the start of a signposted 1km trail to another 2 rock-carved seated Buddhas.

The highlight for us was definitely the 10 metre high boulder with a circumference of 30 metres in the Tapgok Valley. Here there we counted as much as 34 Buddha images on this single boulder and 2 ten metre high engravings of the lost wooden pagodas of the Silla period. In Namsan, we were practically on our own all the time, away from the tourist buses. The details of most of the rock carvings are comparable to the ones in the Ajanta Caves of India and are worthy of inscription on their own. The experience of going from one boulder to the next though was more similar to our recent visit to Bhimbetka in India but on a much larger scale.

Last but not least we visited the stone pagoda of Bunghwangsa which was built in 634 AD, the third year of Queen Seondeok. It is made of andesite cut like bricks and was initially a seven or nine tier pagoda. Now only 3 tiers remain. It has 4 entrances flanked by a pair of granite pillars bearing carved reliefs of Vajrapani or Ferocious Guardians of Buddhism (quite similar to the ones in Seokgoram) with 4 lions posted at the 4 corners of the pagoda's base.