Sources and credits

Ground elevation — FABDEM V1.2

Neal, J., Hawker, L., Uhe, P., Paulo, L., Sosa, J., Savage, J., Sampson, C. (2023). FABDEM V1-2. University of Bristol.

An estimated ground elevation dataset at roughly 30m spacing, derived from the Copernicus DEM with the influence of building and tree heights reduced. Hanyang 3D extracted the Seoul section, reprojected and resampled the grid, and applies a conceptual terrain correction around watercourses in the display.

The original FABDEM and the elevation grid and terrain data derived from it in this service are provided under the Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial–ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license. Attribution and a note of any changes are required, and commercial use is not covered by this license. Derived data must be shared under the same terms.

Elevation data source and processing record · Processed elevation grid

This is not a precise survey or a reconstruction of Joseon-era terrain. The buildings, woods, roads and streams shown include errors and estimates.

Historical map — Latest Map of Seoul (1907)

Collection of the Seoul Museum of History; published by Ilhan Seobang, revised November 1907 edition, 1:10,000. We use a museum image copy preserved on Wikimedia Commons. Hanyang3D applied orientation correction, map-frame cropping and terrain registration.

Museum collection · Korea Open Government License Type 1 (attribution) · Wikimedia Commons · Registration record

The 1907 view places the historical map approximately on modern FABDEM terrain. It does not apply the buildings, roads or channel adjustments of the 1750 scene.

Ordinary houses and shops in the 1907 scene are speculative roadside placements. Some small symbols around Sungnyemun were read from the source map; their uses, forms and dates are not established reconstructions.

Old map — Doseong Daejido

The full image of Doseong Daejido (the Great Map of the Capital) from the Seoul Museum of History, Seoul History Archive, is used. Warping the map to the terrain, reading the roads, watercourses, city walls, Gyeongbokgung walls and woods, and placing them in 3D were done by Hanyang 3D.

• 서울역사박물관, 도성대지도, 서울역사아카이브
  공공누리 제1유형 (출처표시) · 원본 출처

Architectural references

The cathedral’s nave, aisles, arches and tower follow the architectural description in the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture. Interior ornament, glass patterns, seating and altar are interpretive, not a measured reconstruction of 1907. Encyclopedia of Korean Culture — Myeongdong Cathedral

Additional 1907 models are project-authored interpretations of the architectural descriptions and map locations below. Position, plan, height and ornament include estimates. National Institute of Korean History — Palaces and gates · Royal Palaces and Tombs Center — Jongmyo · National Institute of Korean History — Hwangudan · National Archives — Myeongdong Cathedral · Korea Tourism Organization — Chungdong Church · Sources by building

The 1907 palace models are project-authored concepts based on the dates and architectural forms in the sources below. Positions, dimensions and cloisters are approximate. No external 3D models or photographic textures were used. Culture Portal — Geunjeongjeon · National Archives — Deoksugung · National Palace Museum — Injeongjeon

For Gyeongdeokgung, Changdeokgung and Changgyeonggung, the roof stories and hall forms follow the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture entries on Sungjeongjeon, Injeongjeon, Myeongjeongjeon. They are conceptual models with platforms, pillars, roofs and forecourts built by us, not reconstructions of an entire palace in any particular year. Changdeokgung's Donhwamun and Changgyeonggung's Honghwamun are conceptual models whose two-story gate towers and three-door layout follow the same encyclopedia's descriptions.

The government offices in front of Gwanghwamun follow the plan of around 1863 and the reconstruction images in Seoul S-MAP Open Lab, "Time Travel to Yukjo Street in the Joseon Era". The walls, gates, courtyards and halls were simplified by us and are not a reconstruction of the exact 18th-century building layout.

The Song Si-yeol house site is a conceptual model of a simplified wall and tiled house; the Jeong Do-jeon house site is shown only as a small marker stone, since no house stood there in 1750. Neither reconstructs the actual house layout or extent, and neither is drawn on Doseong Daejido. The Jeong Do-jeon site is the point obtained by converting the what3words address ///축구공.정성껏.연말, supplied by a user, to latitude and longitude. The on-screen position of the Song Si-yeol house is a display point set inside the city wall northeast of Seonggyungwan; the actual site is a rough point based on the designated location (Myeongnyun 1-ga) of the Uam Song Si-yeol House Site on the Korea Heritage Portal, borrowing the neighborhood name coordinates from OpenStreetMap, and may be off by several hundred meters. The reasoning behind both points is recorded in the placement data.

The sijeon (licensed shop) rows along Unjongga are display models lined up on both sides of the road, following the road alignment and width read from the source map. The position of each individual row building is not drawn on the source map, and the bay size and depth are visualization assumptions. The extent follows the Uri Yeoksa Net description of the sijeon rows. The shop names and their order on the signboards follow the location description in Uri Yeoksa Net, Yugujeon (the Six Licensed Shops); which shops carry signboards and their shapes are for display. For Hullyeonwon, a drill ground is also shown, following the Seoul city introduction which says a yard for archery and military examinations lay south of the office.

The bell tower (Jongnu) is a conceptual model simplified to a single-story bell pavilion, following the Bosingak Site description that it was built in 1440 as a pavilion five bays wide and four bays deep and rebuilt in 1619, after the Imjin War, as a single-story bell pavilion, and the old Bosingak bronze bell on the Korea Heritage Portal (1468, height 3.18 m, mouth diameter 2.28 m). Descriptions and periods of individual buildings can be seen by clicking a building on the map or in the Building guide.

The main hall (Jeongjeon) of Jongmyo follows the 15-bay size after the 1726 extension, according to the history of Jongmyo from the Royal Palaces and Tombs Center, Korea Heritage Service. The building, wall, people and tree models are simplified representations made by Hanyang 3D, not survey reconstruction models.

Software

The 3D map view uses Three.js. Copyright notice and full license text follow.

The MIT License

Copyright © 2010-2025 three.js authors

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in
all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN
THE SOFTWARE.

Copyright (c) 2015-2026 Endel Dreyer

MIT License:

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in
all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN
THE SOFTWARE.

The web server uses Django and Gunicorn. Project source code

People, clothing and dialogue in 1907

Original schematic models informed by 1906–1907 photographs and clothing records from the National Folk Museum, street photographs from the Seoul Museum of History, and records from the National Archives and the National Institute of Korean History. Clothing colors, numbers and placements are approximate; dialogue is fictional. Reference photographs are not used as textures.

국립민속박물관 — 헤르만 산더의 여행 · 국립민속박물관 — 대한제국 군복 · 서울역사박물관 — 종로 거리 사진 · 국가기록원 — 근위대대 · 우리역사넷 — 군대해산

Jongno trams in 1907

Tracks follow the red electric railway line on the 1907 map. The original schematic model draws on descriptions of early open cars. Colours, dimensions, pole spacing, speed, pauses and fleet size are visualization choices. No reference photograph is used as a texture.

한국민족문화대백과 — 전차 · 실록위키 — 전차 · 우리역사넷 — 전기와 함께 들어 온 전차 · 서울역사박물관 — 대한제국기 전차표 · Tram reconstruction data