The first thing that one would notice as they Seoul’s downtown are the tall offices with a mix of scattered old temples and shrines. The city seems to be an urban sprawl, grown and still growing organically, spontaneously as per the need and the whims of the times.

The second thing that one would notice, as soon as they infact look up, is a tall needle on top of a green hill. That would be the symbol of Seoul, and it has had many names in its more than 50 years of looking over the city, and it’s popularly known as N Seoul Tower or Namsan Tower after the Namsan Hill that it’s built on, which is the highest peak in hilly Seoul, and is very close to the downtown area.

The hill and the surrounding area is a huge public park, complete with some heritage sites and botanical parks. So one could take one of many hikes up to the tower, but as it was sweltering hot at the time, we took the cable car option.

The view from the observation deck is that of a metropolis with a unique cityscape. It very much felt like scaled up version of the sample we saw up-close in the downtown, mix of old and new, planned and organic, hills of green and concrete jutting out like waves as far as the eye could see.

If we looked closely enough we could see patches of curiosities in the cityscape.

Looking onto us from the other end of town was the other famous tower of Seoul, the Lotte World Tower.

The sixth highest tower in the world, the Lotte World Tower was finished in 2017. A mix of contemporary and traditional Korean design, the tower is meant to symbolise South Korea’s influence on the world with their culture and technology. No one could doubt any of that indeed, but for me the building reminded me of something else. I was sure I could see an eye glaring at me from its spires.

That evening we made our way to that big edifice, to have some drinks at a bar called Bar 81, guess which floor it was on.

The view from there was that rivers of traffic lights, lit up roads and city blocks, again all the way to the horizon.

And making its calm presence felt in the corner of our vision was the Namsan Tower, lit up in blue on top of the hill.

So there we are, the Two Towers of Seoul.

One rises from the mountain like an old sentinel from times gone by. The other soars from the plain, a spear of glass and steel, like a silver knight ushering in the tomorrow. Between them lies Seoul — a city where history whispers in palace courtyards and the future hums in the glow of neon streets. As in the tales of old, the two towers stand apart yet bound together, one holding the memory of the past, the other carrying the promise of what’s to come.

And in their shadow, the story of Seoul marches on.