MALTI GOGAE
MALTI GOGAE
Introduce sultural sightseeing
of Boeun.
It is about 7km away from Boeun on the way to Songrisan. The Malti Gogae (gogae means mountain ridge) is the first pass in the Songnisan area. It has been famous for the pavement of bakseok, wide and thin stone. Dongguk Yeoji Seungram (published in the 16th century, and describing geographies and customs of each region of the Korean peninsula) recorded that Wang-geon, the first king of the Koreo dynasty, had ordered the road to be paved with those stones 1,200 ~ 1,600m, while taking a journey to Songnisan. Probably, it probably was the origin of building this road.
There was some personal motive for Wang-geon to visit this area. His grandfather, Jak Je Geon, had lived in Songnisan reading Buddhist scriptures until he died. He may have visited this area searching for the relics of his grandfather. When king Sejo of the Joseon dynasty passed this area, he is said to have paved it with bakseok again. Now, we can identify vague remnants of the old pavement.
In 1924, Park Joong Yang, governor of Chungcheongbuk-do province repaired the road to make it for cars to run on it for the first time in history. In 1967, it was expanded to 10~15m wide.
Reaching the ridge of the pass driving up the 12 curves, you will find that the view around it is really spectacular. Especially, The sunrise to the direction of Songnisan, and the sunset to the direction of Boeun are spectacular.
※ About the origin of its name, Malti, there are several versions. One version is that, when king Sejo climbed over the pass, he had to change from palanquin riding to horse riding. ('malti' is similar in pronunciation to 'mal tada', ride a horse, in Korean language.) However, it is more probable that the origin of 'mal' is 'maru' which means in Korean 'high' or 'peak'. Therefore, Maltije must mean 'high ridge'.