Beneath a newly completed 25-story office tower in central Seoul, visitors will soon be able to walk along the stone-paved alleys of 16th-century Joseon Dynasty, stepping directly into the daily lives and cutting-edge science of Korea’s past. The Seoul Museum of History announced Tuesday the opening of the Insa Historic Sites Museum, a sprawling 4,810-square-meter subterranean site located in the historic neighborhood of Insa-dong. Scheduled for an official opening ceremony Wednesday, and public admission Thursday, the basement facility is the largest on-site museum in the Korean capital. Unlike traditional museums that house relics behind glass cases away from their origin, the new exhibition hall presents a massive archaeological site approximately where it was unearthed. Visitors walking along elevated wooden decks will look down upon the preserved foundations of six 16th-century buildings, ancient drainage systems and a massive communal stone well. The ruins were uncovered between 2020 and 2021 during excavation work for a commercial redevelopment project in the historic city-cent