Seoul

Seoul is the capital of . With a population of over 9 million, Seoul is by far South Korea's largest city and one of 's financial and cultural centers.
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Essential Destinations

Top destinations include Jongno and Incheon International Airport.

Photo: Naturehead, Public domain.
is in Seoul, and constitutes the northern half of the historic core of Seoul, along with Jung, the southern half. As the soul of Seoul, is home to a plethora of beautiful Joseon Dynasty palaces, shrines, temples, parks, historic neighborhoods, and other traditional sights.

Photo: John Martinez Pavliga, CC BY 2.0.
is South Korea's largest airport, its main international gateway, and the main airport of Seoul.

Photo: Wikimedia, CC BY 2.0.
Gangnam and Seocho are districts in Seoul. Gangnam and Seocho are the bustling centers of modern Seoul, which is famous for their luxurious shopping, vibrant night views, and major business headquarters.

Destinations to Discover

Explore places such as Yeongdeungpo-Guro and Seodaemun-Mapo.

Photo: yuseokoh, CC BY-SA 2.0.
Yeongdeungpo and Guro are districts in Seoul. Yeongdeungpo is mostly a commercial area, and many of the nation's media companies are based here especially in Yeouido.

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Seodaemun and Mapo are districts in northwestern Seoul, by the banks of the Han River. They're most notable for their colleges and universities, resulting in a distinctly youthful culture, especially in the twin subdistricts of Hongdae and Sinchon, separated by a single subway stop, a 10-minute bus ride, or a 20-minute walk.

Photo: Gaël Chardon, CC BY-SA 2.0.
Dongjak, Gwanak and Geumcheon are districts of Seoul south of the Han River. is a largely residential and educational region characterized by university districts, hillside neighborhoods, and industrial redevelopment zones.

Photo: mroach, CC BY-SA 2.0.
The districts of Dongdaemun, Jungnang, Gwangjin and Seongdong are in the east of the city of Seoul. is a vibrant and diverse region with a unique blend of traditional Korean culture and modern urban life.

Photo: Wikimedia, CC BY 2.5.
and Gangdong are in the eastern part of Seoul, along the Han River. Quieter and more residential then its hectic neighbor, Gangnam, nonetheless offers a fair number of attractions.

Photo: Mark Zastrow, CC BY 2.0.
The districts of Gangbuk, Dobong, Eunpyeong, Seongbuk and Nowon are in the northern part of Seoul. It is probably best known for the Bukhan mountain that offers nature and hiking close to the city.

Photo: Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 3.0.
is in Seoul, constituting the southern half of the historic core of Seoul, along with Jongno. is busier than its tranquil neighbor, with hundreds of offices buildings and endless streets of frantic shopping, but scattered among the hustle and bustle are more historic gems.

Photo: Jinah78, CC BY-SA 3.0.
is in Seoul's geographic center, sandwiched between Seoul's two major cultural and economic centers, Gangnam and Jongno/Jung. The main area of interest here for travelers is Itaewon, the most international and foreigner-friendly neighborhood in Seoul, and one of the only places where you can find authentic Mexican, Turkish, Middle Eastern, and Indian food on the entire peninsula.

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The districts of Gangseo and Yangcheon are in the west of the city of Seoul.
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Photo: Ian Armstrong, CC BY-SA 2.0.
Photo: Kallerna, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Places of Interest

Highlights include Changdeokgung and Cheong Wa Dae.

is a former royal palace in Seoul, South Korea. A UNESCO World Heritage Site and a Historic Site of South Korea, it is among the best preserved of all Korean palaces.

Government office
Photo: Kallerna, CC BY-SA 4.0.
, also known as the Blue House, is the executive office and residence of the president of South Korea. Located in Seoul's , directly behind the former palace, it has served as the center of presidential administration…

Castle
Deoksugung, also called Deoksu Palace or , is a former royal palace in Seoul, South Korea. It was the main palace during the Korean Empire and is now a major tourist attraction.

Places in the Area

Nearby places include Downtown Seoul and Yongsin-dong.

Quarter
Photo: Wikimedia, CC BY 4.0.
, also known as Seoul Central Business District or Sadaemun-An, is traditional city center and central business district of Seoul, located through of and of along the Sejong-daero and Jong-ro.

Quarter
Photo: 안우석, CC0.
is a dong of , Seoul, South Korea. It consists of the two legal dong Sinseol-dong and Yongdu-dong.

Quarter
Photo: 안우석, CC0.
is a dong of , South Korea.

Seoul

Latitude
37.5665° or 37° 33′ 60″ north
Longitude
126.978° or 126° 58′ 41″ east
Population
9,640,000
Elevation
38 metres (125 feet)
IATA airport code
SEL
United Nations Location Code
KR SEL
Open location code
8Q98HX8H+J5
Open­Street­Map ID
node 1912365631
Open­Street­Map feature
place=­city
Geo­Names ID
1835848
Wiki­data ID
Q8684
This page is based on OpenStreetMap, GeoNames, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons, and Wikivoyage.
We’d love your help improving our open data sources. Thank you for contributing.

Satellite Map

Discover Seoul from above in high-definition satellite imagery.
© Stadia Maps, Airbus DS, CNES, PlanetObserver, and Copernicus

In Other Languages

From Abkhazian to Zulu—“Seoul” goes by many names.
  • Abkhazian: “Сеул”
  • Achinese: “Seoul”
  • Afrikaans: “Seoel”
  • Albanian: “Seoul”
  • Albanian: “Seul”
  • Albanian: “Seuli”
  • Amharic: “ሶል”
  • Amharic: “ሶውል”
  • Ancient Greek (to 1453): “Σεούλη”
  • Angika: “सियोल”
  • Arabic: “سول تكبيولشي”
  • Arabic: “سول”
  • Arabic: “سيئول”
  • Arabic: “سيول”
  • Arabic: “مدينة سول الخاصة”
  • Aragonese: “Seúl”
  • Armenian: “Սեուլ”
  • Assamese: “চিউল”
  • Assamese: “ছিউল”
  • Assamese: “ছিওল”
  • Asturian: “Seúl”
  • Azerbaijani: “Seul”
  • Balinese: “Seoul”
  • Banjar: “Seoul”
  • Banjar: “Soul”
  • Bashkir: “Сеул”
  • Basque: “Seul”
  • Belarusian: “Сеул”
  • Belarusian: “Сэул”
  • Bengali: “সিউল”
  • Betawi: “Séul”
  • Bhojpuri: “सिओल”
  • Bhojpuri: “सियोल”
  • Bhojpuri: “सीयोल”
  • Bislama: “Seoul”
  • Bosnian: “Seoul”
  • Bosnian: “Seul”
  • Breton: “Seoul”
  • Bulgarian: “Сеул”
  • Bulgarian: “столица на Република Корея”
  • Burmese: “ဆိုးလ်မြို့”
  • Catalan: “Seül”
  • Cebuano: “Seoul”
  • Central Bikol: “Seoul”
  • Central Kanuri: “Seoul”
  • Central Kurdish: “سۆل”
  • Central Kurdish: “سۆول”
  • Central Kurdish: “سیئۆل”
  • Central Kurdish: “سێئول”
  • Central Kurdish: “شاری تایبەتی سێئول”
  • Central Kurdish: “شاری سیئۆل”
  • Chechen: “Сеул”
  • Chinese: “Seoul Te̍k-pia̍t-chhī”
  • Chinese: “汉城”
  • Chinese: “漢城”
  • Chinese: “首尔”
  • Chinese: “首尔特别市”
  • Chinese: “首爾”
  • Chinese: “首爾特別市”
  • Chuvash: “Сеул”
  • Cornish: “Seoul”
  • Corsican: “Cità Speciale di Seul”
  • Corsican: “Cità Spiciale di Seul”
  • Corsican: “Seul”
  • Crimean Tatar: “Seul”
  • Croatian: “Seoul”
  • Croatian: “Seul”
  • Czech: “Soul”
  • Danish: “Seoul”
  • Dimli (individual language): “Seul”
  • Dotyali: “सियोल”
  • Dutch: “Seoel”
  • Dutch: “Seoul”
  • Eastern Mari: “Сеул”
  • Egyptian Arabic: “سول”
  • Egyptian Arabic: “سيول”
  • Erzya: “Сеул ош”
  • Esperanto: “Seulo”
  • Estonian: “Seoul”
  • Estonian: “Soul”
  • Estonian: “Sŏul”
  • Extremaduran: “Seúl”
  • Faroese: “Seoul”
  • Fiji Hindi: “Seoul”
  • Finnish: “Soul”
  • French: “Gyeongseong”
  • French: “Hanseong”
  • French: “Kenghi”
  • French: “Séoul”
  • French: “Sŏul”
  • French: “Ville spéciale de Séoul”
  • French: “Wiryeseong”
  • Friulian: “Seoul”
  • Friulian: “Seûl”
  • Gagauz: “Seul”
  • Galician: “Seoul Teukbyeolsi”
  • Galician: “Seúl”
  • Galician: “Sŏul T’ŭkpyŏlsi”
  • Gan Chinese: “首爾”
  • Georgian: “სეული”
  • German: “Gyeongseong”
  • German: “Hanseong”
  • German: “Hansŏng”
  • German: “Hanyang”
  • German: “Keijō”
  • German: “Kyŏngsŏng”
  • German: “Seoul”
  • German: “Soul”
  • German: “Sŏul”
  • German: “Söul”
  • Ghanaian Pidgin English: “Seoul”
  • Greek: “Σεούλ”
  • Guarani: “Seúl”
  • Guarani: “Seúlu”
  • Gujarati: “સિઓલ”
  • Haitian: “Seoul”
  • Hakka Chinese: “Seoul”
  • Hakka Chinese: “Sú-ngì”
  • Hausa: “Seoul”
  • Hawaiian: “Seoul”
  • Hebrew: “סאול”
  • Hebrew: “סיאול”
  • Hindi: “सियोल”
  • Hungarian: “Szöul”
  • Iban: “Seoul”
  • Icelandic: “Seúl”
  • Ido: “Seoul”
  • Igala: “Séoul”
  • Igbo: “Seoul”
  • Iloko: “Seoul”
  • Indonesian: “Seoul”
  • Ingush: “Сеул”
  • Interlingua: “Seoul”
  • Interlingue: “Seoul”
  • Inupiaq: “Suulaq”
  • Irish: “príomhchathair na Cóiré Theas”
  • Irish: “Seoul”
  • Irish: “Súl”
  • Italian: “Città Speciale di Seoul”
  • Italian: “Città Speciale di Seul”
  • Italian: “Seul”
  • Jamaican Creole English: “Siol”
  • Japanese: “ソウル”
  • Japanese: “ソウル市”
  • Japanese: “ソウル特別市”
  • Japanese: “京城”
  • Japanese: “南京”
  • Japanese: “漢城”
  • Japanese: “漢城府”
  • Japanese: “漢陽”
  • Japanese: “漢陽府”
  • Japanese: “首尔”
  • Japanese: “首爾”
  • Javanese: “Seoul”
  • Kabiyè: “Sewuuli”
  • Kabyle: “Seyul”
  • Kadazan Dusun: “Seoul”
  • Kalaallisut: “Seoul”
  • Kannada: “ಸಿಯೋಲ್”
  • Kannada: “ಸೌಲ್”
  • Kara-Kalpak: “Seul”
  • Karekare: “Seoul”
  • Kashmiri: “سیٛول”
  • Kashubian: “Seul”
  • Kazakh: “Виресон”
  • Kazakh: “Сеул қаласы”
  • Kazakh: “Сеул”
  • Kazakh: “Соу́ль”
  • Kazakh: “Хансон”
  • Kazakh: “Ханян”
  • Khmer: “សេអ៊ូល”
  • Kirghiz: “Сеул”
  • Komering: “Seoul”
  • Kongo: “Seoul”
  • Korean: “경성” (historical)
  • Korean: “서울”
  • Korean: “서울시”
  • Korean: “서울특별시”
  • Korean: “한성” (historical)
  • Korean: “한양” (historical)
  • Kurdish: “Sêûl”
  • Ladino: “Seul”
  • Lao: “ໂຊລ”
  • Latin: “Seulum Urbs Eximia”
  • Latin: “Seulum”
  • Latvian: “Seula”
  • Lezghian: “Сеул”
  • Ligurian: “Seoul”
  • Limburgan: “Seoel”
  • Lingala: “Sɔul”
  • Lingua Franca Nova: “Seoul”
  • Literary Chinese: “首爾”
  • Lithuanian: “Seulas”
  • Livvi: “Seul”
  • Lombard: “Seoul”
  • Low German: “Seoul”
  • Lower Sorbian: “Soul”
  • Luxembourgish: “Seoul”
  • Macedo-Romanian: “Seoul”
  • Macedonian: “Сеул”
  • Madurese: “Seoul”
  • Magahi: “सियोल विशेष नगर”
  • Magahi: “सियोल”
  • Malagasy: “Seoul”
  • Malay: “Bandar Raya Khas Seoul”
  • Malay: “Bandaraya Khas Seoul”
  • Malay: “Seoul”
  • Malayalam: “സോൾ”
  • Maltese: “Seoul”
  • Maori: “Houra”
  • Marathi: “सोल”
  • Mazanderani: “سئول”
  • Mesopotamian Arabic: “سول”
  • Mesopotamian Arabic: “سوول”
  • Min Dong Chinese: “Seoul”
  • Min Dong Chinese: “Siū-ék”
  • Min Nan Chinese: “Seoul Te̍k-pia̍t-chhī”
  • Minangkabau: “Seoul”
  • Mingrelian: “სეული”
  • Mirandese: “Seul”
  • Moksha: “Сэул”
  • Mongolian: “Сөүл”
  • Moroccan Arabic: “سول”
  • Moroccan Arabic: “سيول”
  • Nauru: “Seoul”
  • Nepali: “सियोल”
  • Nepali: “सोल”
  • Newari: “सोल”
  • Northern Frisian: “Seoul”
  • Northern Luri: “سئول”
  • Norwegian Bokmål: “Seoul”
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: “Seoul”
  • Norwegian: “Seoul”
  • Novial: “Seoul”
  • Nyanja: “Seoul”
  • Occitan (post 1500): “Seol”
  • Old English (ca. 450-1100): “Seorabēol”
  • Oriya: “ସିଓଲ”
  • Ossetian: “Сеул”
  • Pa'o Karen: “ဝေင်ꩻသိုး”
  • Pampanga: “Seoul”
  • Panjabi: “ਸਿਓਲ”
  • Papiamento: “Seoul”
  • Persian: “سئول”
  • Picard: “Séoul”
  • Piemontese: “Seoul”
  • Pitcairn-Norfolk: “Soel”
  • Polish: “Seul”
  • Portuguese: “Seul”
  • Pushto: “سيول”
  • Pushto: “سیول”
  • Quechua: “Siul”
  • Quechua: “Siyul”
  • Romanian: “Seul”
  • Romanian: “Сеул”
  • Romansh: “Seoul”
  • Russia Buriat: “Сеул”
  • Russia Buriat: “Соүль”
  • Russian: “Кэйдзё”
  • Russian: “Сеул”
  • Russian: “Столица Кореи”
  • Russian: “Столица Республики Корея”
  • Russian: “Столица Южной Кореи”
  • Rusyn: “Соул”
  • Sakizaya: “Suylmicidekay a tukay”
  • Samogitian: “Seuls”
  • Santali: “ᱥᱤᱣᱩᱞ”
  • Sardinian: “Seul”
  • Sardinian: “Seùl”
  • Scots: “Hanseong”
  • Scots: “Seoul Special Ceety”
  • Scots: “Seoul”
  • Scots: “Special Ceety o Seoul”
  • Scottish Gaelic: “Seoul”
  • Serbian: “Сеул”
  • Serbo-Croatian: “Seoul”
  • Shona: “Seoul”
  • Sicilian: “Seoul”
  • Silesian: “Seul”
  • Sindhi: “سيئول”
  • Sinhala: “‍සෝල්”
  • Sinhala: “සෝල්”
  • Slovak: “Soul”
  • Slovenian: “Seul”
  • Somali: “Seoul”
  • Somali: “Seyul”
  • South Azerbaijani: “سئول”
  • Spanish: “Ciudad Especial de Seul”
  • Spanish: “Ciudad Especial de Seúl”
  • Spanish: “Seul”
  • Spanish: “Seúl”
  • Standard Moroccan Tamazight: “ⵙⵢⵓⵍ”
  • Sundanese: “Seoul”
  • Swahili: “Seoul”
  • Swedish: “Seoul”
  • Swedish: “Söul”
  • Swiss German: “Seoul”
  • Tachelhit: “Syul”
  • Tagalog: “Espesyal na Siyudad ng Seoul”
  • Tagalog: “Natatanging Lungsod ng Seoul”
  • Tagalog: “Seoul”
  • Tagalog: “Siyudad Espesyal ng Seoul”
  • Tajik: “Сеул”
  • Talysh: “Seul”
  • Tamil: “சியோல்”
  • Tamil: “ஸோல்”
  • Tatar: “Seul”
  • Tatar: “Сеул”
  • Telugu: “సియొల్”
  • Telugu: “సియోల్”
  • Thai: “ซออุล”
  • Thai: “โซล”
  • Tibetan: “སེ་ཨུལ།”
  • Tok Pisin: “Sol”
  • Tosk Albanian: “Seoul”
  • Tumbuka: “Seoul”
  • Turkish: “Seul”
  • Turkmen: “Seul”
  • Tuvinian: “Сеул”
  • Tyap: “Sa̱ul”
  • Udmurt: “Сеул”
  • Uighur: “سېئول”
  • Ukrainian: “Сеул”
  • Upper Sorbian: “Seoul”
  • Urdu: “سؤل”
  • Urdu: “سیول”
  • Uzbek: “Seul”
  • Venetian: “Seul”
  • Veps: “Seul”
  • Vietnamese: “Gyeongseong”
  • Vietnamese: “Hán Thành”
  • Vietnamese: “Hanseong”
  • Vietnamese: “Hanyang”
  • Vietnamese: “Keijō”
  • Vietnamese: “Keijou”
  • Vietnamese: “Namgyeong”
  • Vietnamese: “Seoul Teukbyeolsi”
  • Vietnamese: “Seoul”
  • Vietnamese: “Thành phố đặc biệt Seoul”
  • Vietnamese: “Wiryeseong”
  • Vietnamese: “Xê-un”
  • Vietnamese: “Xơ-un”
  • Vlaams: “Seoel”
  • Vlax Romani: “Seoul”
  • Volapük: “Söul”
  • Võro: “Sŏul”
  • Waray (Philippines): “Seoul”
  • Welsh: “Seoul”
  • Western Frisian: “Seoel”
  • Western Frisian: “Seoul”
  • Western Panjabi: “سئول”
  • Western Panjabi: “سیول”
  • Wu Chinese: “首尔”
  • Wu Chinese: “首尔特别市”
  • Yakut: “Сеул”
  • Yiddish: “סעאל”
  • Yoruba: “Seoul”
  • Yue Chinese: “漢城”
  • Yue Chinese: “首爾”
  • Zeeuws: “Seoul”
  • Zhuang: “Soujwj”
  • Zulu: “ESeoul”
  • Zulu: “i-Seoul”
  • “ma tomo Solu”
  • “Q8684”
  • “Seoul”
  • “Seul”
  • “Seuls”
  • “Sŏul”
  • “Сеул”
  • “सियोल”

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