<photograph> Detail of Dongguk daejeondo; Great Map of and Eastern Country [Korea], Jeong Sang-ki, mid-18th century, color manuscript copy 272.7x147.5 cm, National Museum of Korea.

 

  Detail of an early map illustrating how cartographers traditionally symbolized elements of the Korean landscape. Prominent natural features include rivers, mountains, the coastline, and the island of Ulleungdo. A distinction is made between the primary mountain ridges of Taebaeksanmaek and Sobaeksanmaek, shown as large blue peaks, and the minor ridgelines, shown in green.

 

 Topography of the Korean Peninsula

 

 The unique geography of the Korean Peninsula has produced a remarkably beautiful and varied scenery. The scenery or landscape of a particular place is made up of those visible landforms, plants, and other elements that give a place its character. Within a short distance, a traveler in Korea can see very different landscapes: rocky shorelines, rugged mountains, tranquil lakes, and meandering streams. 

 

 The natural elements of a landscape comprise both physical and biological components of Earth’s four environmental spheres: the lithosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere. These elements provide a framework for the activities of humans, who affect—and are greatly affected by—the natural setting. Topography, for example, partly determines the location of agricultural fields, cities, roads, and reservoirs. In recent millennia, the ability of humans to modify the environment has expanded rapidly so that we are now significant components of many environmental processes. The anthroposphere, sometimes recognized as a fifth environmental sphere, is dominated by human construction and modification of the natural landscape.

 

 The lithosphere includes the study of landforms, geology, rocks, minerals, and soils. The atmosphere encompasses all studies relating to the composition of the air around our planet, how it moves, and how weather and climates interact with the sun’ energy and the locations of elements on the surface of the earth. The hydrosphere pertains to the water systems on our planet, including seas and oceans, arctic and alpine snow and ice, as well as inland water systems in rivers, lakes, and underground aquifers. And the biosphere refers to the realm of all living things, including all classifications of plants and animals. 

 

 The Korean Peninsula is bordered by water on three sides. The Yellow Sea is relatively shallow, generally less than 100 meters deep. The East Sea, however, is quite deep even close to the shoreline and reaches depths of more than 3,000 meters. The Peninsula has relatively extensive coastlines for its size. In contrast to its smooth eastern coastline, its southern and western coastlines are irregular and complex, with many islands.

 

 A topographic map reveals the broad asymmetry in elevation across the Korean Peninsula. Mountain ranges, with high elevations depicted in orange and yellow, mostly occur to the north and east. Lower elevations, shown in green, mostly occur in the west and south. The highest point, Baekdusan, at 2,744 meters, is a volcanic peak near the border of North Korea and China. The Hamkyeongsanmaek and Taebaeksanmaek mountain ranges run north-to-south, following the coastline. Rivers on the east side of these ranges flow a short distance to the East Sea. Rivers flowing to the west generally run much longer as they cross the lowlands toward the Yellow Sea. 

 

 The mountains of Korea have traditionally been portrayed on maps as linear ridges, which emphasizes the connectedness of areas with high elevation. These traditional linear ridges correspond roughly to stream basin boundaries, also called watershed boundaries or drainage divides. This ancient way of depicting the landscape is conceptually similar to modern ecological approaches that use watersheds as a fundamental unit of landscape analysis to study natural processes.