This is the center of Gyeongbokgung. It is known as the Throne Hall, or Geunjeongjeon. It used to be a place that was exclusively for the king and his officials, But now over 38 million tourists visit every year. The Geunjeongjeon Hall is surrounded by 36 mythical figures that are there to protect the building. These figures demonstrate the architect’s desire to protect the king from evil influences. They include the twelve zodiac animals – mouse, ox, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, and chicken, among others – not to mention the spirits who guard the north, south, east and west. Their faces all wear silly expressions. Joseon architects often included statues with silly and humorous facial expressions in buildings intended for very serious purposes. There is even an animal mother with her baby. You can see these for yourself near the bottom of the stairs. If you look at the roof, you will see terracotta ornaments. They represent characters from classical Chinese fairy tales whose purpose was to protect the king. These ornaments are only found on those buildings that are directly related to the king. No matter how wealthy you were, you could not place these decorations on your roof if you were not the king. There are terracotta figures on the rooftops of the surrounding palace buildings as well, but the number of decorations per roof is not uniform. We can guess that the more terracotta figures there are on a roof, the higher the status of the person living in that building. You will see a metallic plate next to the stairway. Originally it was meant to store water. Gyeongbokgung is made of wood. Thus it would be disastrous if there were to be a fire. Thus, water was kept in these metal bowls for safety. There is an interesting story about these bowls. A long time ago, there lived a fire demon who had a very ugly face. Once when he came to Gyeongbokgung to make a fire, he looked into the metal bowl and saw the reflection of his face. He was so frightened by his hideous looking face that he ran far away. Narcissus killed himself by falling into the water after falling in love with his own reflection; it looks like the fire demon in this story went in the opposite direction!