Once you reach the main gate, turn and look behind you. The path heading out towards the southwest continues all the way to Shuri castle. The path itself spans 12km. Hanta in Okinawan means the abyss off the edge of a cliff or precipice. Both Shuri Castle and Nakagusuku castle sit overlooking a cliffside, but why did these cliffsides come into existence? Let’s see in the following pictures.

Between Sashiki Peninsula and Katsuren Peninsula there is a bay called Nakagusuku Bay, and at one point there was a mountain that was over 1000 meters tall that sat between the two. Then one day, out of nowhere the mountain collapsed in on itself. In its place was a giant hole that became the cliff you are standing at now. Proof of this is the landslides that occur on the east side of the cliff. There is actually a town that is located at the bottom of the cliff which owes its creation to these very landslides.

The road doesn’t end here though. This road actually continues on past Nakagusuku castle to Katsuren castle. At one point Katsuren castle lost all funding from the Ryukyu Kingdom and acted as a separate entity. This is why Nakagusuku castle served as a key point of contact between the two spaces.