Queen Seondeok and Silla's capital at Gyeongju

Seondeok became the first woman to rule Silla in 632 and reigned for fifteen years while the kingdom fought Baekje and Goguryeo. Her court built Bunhwangsa temple, the nine-storey wooden pagoda of Hwangnyongsa and Cheomseongdae, a stone tower thought to be the oldest surviving astronomical observatory in East Asia. Her envoys to Tang China prepared the alliance behind Silla's later unification of Korea.