In the north-east of China, on the middle course of the Yalu, lie the remains of the capitals and burial grounds of the Koguryo kingdom, a power that once extended across parts of present-day China and the Korean peninsula. The ensemble is inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List and combines two kinds of evidence: fortified sites, with mountain citadels and walled cities that show how a frontier state organised its defence, and funerary architecture, from stepped stone tombs to earthen mounds sheltering painted chambers. Those murals are the heart of the episode. They depict processions, hunting, wrestling, feasting, guardian creatures and celestial motifs, and they constitute one of the richest visual records of early East Asian court life. Filmed in 4K, the programme documents both the landscape logic of the sites and the fragile pigment surfaces that make them exceptional.
