East Asia · The Sixteen Kingdoms and the Northern and Southern dynasties
Silla
57 BCE – 935 CE
Silla (57 BCE – 935 CE) grew from the Saro statelet of Jinhan into one of the Three Kingdoms, based at Gyeongju (Seorabeol). Distinguished by its bone-rank (golpum) social system and female sovereigns (Seondeok, Jindeok), Silla allied with Tang to destroy Baekje (660) and Goguryeo (668), then expelled the Tang to achieve the unification of most of the peninsula.
- Existed
- 57 BCE – 935 CE
- Shown on the map
- AD 378–681
- Peak area
- 87k km²
- Region
- East Asia
Overview
Silla (57 BCE – 935 CE) grew from the Saro statelet of Jinhan into one of the Three Kingdoms, based at Gyeongju (Seorabeol). Distinguished by its bone-rank (golpum) social system and female sovereigns (Seondeok, Jindeok), Silla allied with Tang to destroy Baekje (660) and Goguryeo (668), then expelled the Tang to achieve the unification of most of the peninsula. It is famous for its gold crowns, the hwarang youth corps, and Buddhist art (Bulguksa, Seokguram).
Common questions
- What was Silla?
- Silla (57 BCE – 935 CE) grew from the Saro statelet of Jinhan into one of the Three Kingdoms, based at Gyeongju (Seorabeol). Distinguished by its bone-rank (golpum) social system and female sovereigns (Seondeok, Jindeok), Silla allied with Tang to destroy Baekje (660) and Goguryeo (668), then expelled the Tang to achieve the unification of most of the peninsula.
- When did Silla exist?
- Silla existed 57 BCE – 935 CE. On this map it is drawn AD 378–681.
- How large was Silla?
- At its greatest extent drawn on this map, Silla covered about 87,000 km². That is the largest area the border data gives it across the years it is drawn, not necessarily its greatest extent in history.
Sources
This compendium cites its sources once for the whole document rather than per territory. Its bibliography names the English Wikipedia article for each polity as the basis of these profiles, supplemented by Encyclopaedia Britannica, chinaknowledge.de, the World History Encyclopedia, museum and university sources, and the academic works it lists. The article this entry is anchored on:
- Wikipedia — Silla en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silla
This entry was last updated .
This entry was researched and drafted with AI from the sources above, and has not been reviewed by a historian. How entries are made
Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0: reuse it with a credit to The World Through Time and a link to this page. Passages drawing on the Wikipedia articles listed above are also licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by their contributors.
Border geometry for the map itself comes from Cliopatria v0.12 (Seshat Global History Databank, CC-BY-4.0).
See Silla in its world
Open the atlas at AD 530 and every neighbour, rival and successor is on screen with it — then drag the slider and watch what happens next.
Open the map at AD 530 →