It is hard to determine when a town was first founded at the site of today's Seoul. But archaeological studies and findings indicate that men began to live in the Han River basin encompassing Seoul and its vicinity Inch'on, Puch'on, P'och'on, Yangju, P'aju, Yong-in and Kanghwa during the prehistoric age, which is around 6,000 years ago or 4000 BC.

At that time, people were grouped in small tribal states, engaged chiefly in farming using stone tools and earthenware. Relics found in the region include shell mounds and dolmens. These relics indicate that urban civilization began along the fertile Han River basin as early as in the prehistoric age, though the founding of Seoul came late compared with the ancient cities that had developed along the Nile in Egypt, the Tigris-Euphrates in Mesopotamia, and Mohenjo-Daro and Harapa of Pakistan.

The area of the City took the form of a town about 2,000 years ago when it was chosen as the capital of the Paekche Kingdom (18 B.C. - 660 A.D.), one of the three ancient states on the Korean Peninsula, and was called Wirye-Song. After Shilla integrated the two other Kingdoms in 668 A.D., the capital City's name was changed to Hanyang-gun, which was also used to refer to the capital city of the later Chosun Dynasty (1392-1910).

After the Koryo Dynasty (918-1392) unified the peninsular again, the name of the area was changed to Yangju. Initially it was a small provincial town, but afterwards developed to a point where it was chosen as one of the "Three Small Capitals" and called Namgyong or Southern Capital in 1067.

It was after 1392 when Yi Song-Gye founded the Chosun Dynasty that Seoul became the actual capital of Korea. Based on the then prevalent geomantic principles, King Yi Song-Gye searched extensively for a new capital site as the base of long-term government for his dynasty, which was geographically ideal for construction of castles and also fit for people's living. Following a series of preparatory works, the King finally decided to build his capital in Hanyang, today's Seoul, and moved his court to Hanyang on October 28, 1394.

The King built Royal shrines, palace buildings, as well as a fortified wall surrounding the capital. 197,000 workers toiled for 98 days to erect the 17 kilometer wall. In the following year 1395, the King established Hansong-Bu Municipality which is responsible for municipal administration and public safety. The administrative area of the capital was broken down into five inner-wall zones of North, South, East, West, and the Center and the outer-wall zone within 4 kilometers around. The function of these zones was comparable to today's "gus (districts)".

Historical records from the tenth year of King Sejong's reign (1428) show the population stood at 103,328 inside the wall and approximately 110,000 when including the population outside the wall. Considering the large amount of unusable land inside the wall, the population density was rather high. In order to accommodate so many people, canals were dug as sewers. All of the land of the capital was owned exclusively by the State.

For roughly 200 years from the 1660's, the population of Seoul remained close to 200,000. Toward the end of the 19th century, however, the population began to increase with the opening of the nation to foreign powers and establishment of foreign missions in Seoul. This also provided he City with its first cosmopolitan touch. Following the annexation of Korea by Japan in 1910, Seoul was renamed Kyongsong. In 1936, its population stood at 730,000.

With national liberation on August 15, 1945, the City was given the official name of Seoul, which is derived from an ancient word meaning "Capital." In 1946, Seoul was upgraded to the status of the Special City placed directly under the control of the national government of Korea. The jurisdictional area of the capital was expanded to 269.73 square kilometers in 1949, when the city had nine "gus (districts)" and a population of about 1,400,000.

As a result of the Korean War that broke out on June 25, 1950, and raged no fewer than three years, the burgeoning capital City was reduced to piles of debris. The signing of the Armistice Agreement saw Seoul regain the function of the national capital while the government worked quickly to rebuild it into a modern metropolis.

Under the special legislative measure enacted in 1962, Seoul Metropolitan Government was put under direct control of the Prime Minister. This act enabled Seoul to develop into an autonomous administration separated from supervision by the national government. The administrative area of the capital City was again expanded to 593.75 square kilometers in January 1963, and further to 605.30 square kilometers in March 1973.

The development of the Southern part of Seoul, South of the Han River, has been extensive in order to meet the increasing demands for urban administration in the 1970's. After successfully hosting the Asian Games in 1986 and the Olympic Games in 1988, Seoul has made great strides to be ranked among the most advanced capital cities in the world.

By introducing the autonomous local government system in 1991, Seoul Metropolitan Government has laid the foundation for the self-administration by the citizens of Seoul. The year of 1994 marked the 600th year since Seoul was designated as the capital of Korea.

Today's Seoul is home to roughly 10 million people and encompasses 605.52 square kilometers. Seoul further comprises 25 "gus (districts)" and 522 "dongs (villages)" as administrative divisions. While maintaining and restructuring the City which has greatly expanded in the process of urbanization and industrialization over the past 30 years, Seoul continues to grow into a more prosperous and thriving city with clean environment.