And it is a very long tail indeed. Historical artifacts from as far back as the stone age can be viewed at the numerous museums in Seoul. If you like your history, or martial history like I do, you will be pleasantly surprised.
What I found interesting was the well documented interaction between the people of the Korean peninsula and the Chinese and Japanese cultures during the different periods, and the influence they had on each other.
Especially the conquests campaigns by different tribes and cultures , the following military developments and battles. These where displayed with periodical weapons and armors and strategy explanations.
More recently, and still very tangible today, was of course the war that divided Korea. High School history told me that during the cold war there where no actual military confrontations between Communist and Capitalist forces. Well they need to rewrite those books. Korea was and still is very much the staging ground for confrontations between communist and capitalist military forces.
At the war memorial museum I found the largest collection of postWW2 military machinery ever. I have never seen so many plains, tanks, anti-aircraft guns, artillery, rockets and helicopters together before in my life.
