Photo of Gaya tombs wins top prize in UNESCO heritage photo contest

The Grand Prize-winning photograph depicts Gaya's tombs in Goseong, South Gyeongsang Province / Courtesy of Tim Schilstra

A photograph of tombs from the Gaya Confederacy (42 B.C. – A.D. 562) in southeastern Korea won the Grand Prize in the Discover Korea's World Heritage Photo Contest, according to The Korea Times, Monday.

The competition was hosted by The Korea Times in collaboration with the Korea Heritage Service (KHS) ahead of the 48th session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, which will be held in Busan from July 19 to 29.

Korea is home to 17 UNESCO World Heritage sites and 12 tentative sites. Participants were invited to submit photographs featuring one of the country's World Heritage or tentative sites. From a total of 576 entries, The Korea Times and the KHS selected 60 winners.

Grand Prize winner Tim Schilstra of Canada captured the Songhak-dong Tumuli in Goseong, South Gyeongsang Province, one of the seven burial sites that make up the Gaya Tumuli, which were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2023. The burial mounds belonged to the Gaya Confederacy, a polity that flourished in the southeastern Korean Peninsula during the Three Kingdoms period (57 B.C. – A.D. 668) but is often overshadowed in popular memory by its better-known contemporaries — Goguryeo, Baekje and Silla. Schilstra will take home an LG StanbyME 2 portable screen.

First Prize winners were Kavecz Edina (Hungary), Emmanuela Steffe (Italy), Hallie Bradley (United States) and Annelien Hermans (Belgium). Second Prize went to Bhattarai Nabin (Nepal), Nguyen Viet Minh (Vietnam), Dustin Alan (United States), Marlier Aurore Claire Linda (France) and Shanae Ennis-Melhado (United Kingdom). In addition, 50 entrants won raffle prizes. All winners will be contacted individually by email.

Prize-winning photographs will be published on The Korea Times website in July.

The competition was sponsored by LG Electronics, Samsung Electronics, Inspire Entertainment Resort, Grand InterContinental Seoul Parnas, Four Seasons Hotel Seoul, Sono International, Everland, Lotte World and the Korean National Symphony Orchestra.