Doseong Daejido (the Great Map of the Capital) fitted with 5 control points onto modern elevation terrain. Left-drag to pan · wheel-button drag (or Shift+drag) to rotate · scroll wheel or right-drag to zoom
Loading elevation and the source map.
Hanyang 3D is a project that brings mid-18th-century Hanyang back to life in three dimensions, on an old map and today's terrain.
It lays the Doseong Daejido (the Great Map of the Capital, held by the Seoul Museum of History) over modern elevation data (FABDEM) and places the roads, waterways, walls and buildings read from the map, such as palaces, government offices and licensed shops. The reference date is around 1750, when the map was drawn.
The buildings are simplified conceptual models based on written sources and maps, not survey reconstructions. Their positions also mix map reading with estimation and may be off from reality by tens of meters.
Getting around Drag to move and use the wheel or two fingers to zoom. Click a building for its description and period. Choose 'First person' in the menu, enter a name, and walk the streets with other visitors.
Sources and credits · Source code · Building guide · Dosung Ilbo (event timeline, Korean)
Blue dots: 5 control points in the city center · mountain names: Bugaksan, Inwangsan, Namsan · boxes: approximate positions of buildings, city gates and facilities. The boxes roughly match the size of a representative building. The gray bases are only there to fit the terrain and are not reconstructions of actual platforms.
Gray-white grain and faint cracks are drawn on the summits and rocky ridges of Bugaksan and Inwangsan. This is a conceptual texture applied around the mountain drawings on the source map, not the actual boundary of exposed bedrock or the result of a geological survey. Turn off the granite texture to compare with the original map and terrain.
Trees are placed inside Gyeongbokgung, around Jongmyo and the Eastern Palaces, and on Inwangsan, Baegak, Naksan, Namsan and elsewhere, following the vegetation drawn on the source map. It is a conceptual model mixing round crowns with pine-like crowns; individual positions, species, heights and densities are estimates.
Tree placement data130 people walk in both directions along Jongno, Yukjo Street and the road inside Donuimun. They are small conceptual models about 1.7 m tall, moving at 0.8–1.3 m per second. They are not a reconstruction of the population, traffic or clothing of the time. Turning off pedestrian playback pauses them.
Around 1780, Hanseongbu (including areas outside the walls) is recorded as 38,742 households and 201,070 people. Households are not building counts. Allowing for shared dwellings and outbuildings, we assumed roughly 30,000–60,000 private buildings (0.8–1.5 buildings per registered household). This is not a survey of the historical number of buildings, and it is a reference value from a period later than the map of around 1750.
On screen, small thatched and tiled houses and shops are placed along the streets inside the city walls. Entrances and awnings face the street; roofs, wooden pillars and lattices are rough representations of hanok. The share of shops around Jongno, the ratio of thatched to tiled roofs, building dimensions and individual positions are estimates. Palaces, ritual spaces, watercourses, city walls and steep terrain were avoided. The density setting only compares how much is displayed and does not represent a population-estimate scenario.
Encyclopedia of Korean Culture · Hanseongbu · Placement and assumption dataThe red road markings on the source map were extracted and overlaid on the terrain in purplish brown. They are shown independently of the old map opacity. Faint or folded areas may have gaps, and some small red symbols may be included. The line width is not a measured width.
Extraction dataThe existing flatland placement inside the blue area is kept, and the map is stretched gradually from the foothills outward. Three mountain drawings are matched to high points in the modern elevation, and to the southwest the 萬里倉 (Mallichang) label on the source map is matched to the Mallichang site in front of Hyochangwon, stretching the map outward in a rough correction. The positions of other villages outside the city walls have not been verified yet. Turn off "Align from the foothills" to compare with the existing placement.
The city wall circuit, read along the line of repeated battlements. Sections over mountain drawings and folds are rough estimates. Openings are left at the gates and where Cheonggyecheon passes through. Height and thickness are assumptions for overview purposes.
City wall reading dataThe blue line is the approximate reading from the upstream reaches toward Seochon and Inwangsan down to the main channel of Cheonggyecheon; the circles are Mojeongyo, Gwangtonggyo, Jangtonggyo, Supyogyo, Haranggyo, Hyogyeonggyo and Majeongyo bridges. The central fold was estimated by joining the channels on either side. Channel width, water level and bridge structure are not survey reconstructions.
Original of the detail map where the bridge names were confirmed