Hallasan

Where is Hallasan?

Hallasan is part of the Shield volcano on Jeju Island.

You will find it in: South Korea.

Summit: 33.362° N, 126.529° E

The story behind it

Hallasan is a shield volcano with long, easy slopes, so from the coast it looks like a huge upturned bowl rather than a pointed peak. In the crater at the top lies Baengnokdam, the lake of the white deer, which fills after heavy rain and can shrink to a puddle in dry weeks. Around the mountain stand hundreds of smaller cones, called oreum, and underground the old lava left long tunnels that people can visit. The climate changes as the paths climb: orange groves and palms near the sea, then oak and pine forest, then low bushes that turn pink with azalea flowers in spring, and snow on the summit in winter. Roe deer feed at the edge of the woods, and the whole mountain is a national park that is also protected as world heritage, so walkers must keep to the marked trails.

Find it on the globe

Hallasan is there as a small peak with its own shape — a horn, a ridge, a volcano — standing on the surface. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.

It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.