Everything about Minas Tirith totally explained
» This article is about the city in the Third Age. For the First Age tower of the same name, see Minas Tirith (First Age).
Minas Tirith, originally named
Minas Anor, is a heavily fortified city in
J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional
Middle-earth writings, which was the
capital of
Gondor in the second half of the
Third Age. It is often referred to as the
White City and the
City of Kings. The
Rohirrim sometimes translated this into
their own language as
Mundburg. In the
Lord of the Rings, Tolkien's most famous book, the city comes under a very large and determined attack in the story's climax. It was originally built to guard the now ruined capital of Gondor,
Osgiliath, from attack from the west.
Description
Minas Tirith was built on a hill, called the Hill of Guard, right against the face of Mount
Mindolluin, facing east towards the
Pelennor Fields, which is used for farmland, and
Osgiliath, the former capital of Gondor that Minas Tirith replaced.
The name Minas Tirith means "The Tower of Guard". It was originally named Minas Anor, "The Tower of the Setting Sun" in league with Minas Ithil, "The Tower of the Rising Moon". Minas Ithil was conquered by orcs and was renamed Minas Morgul, "The Tower of Sorcery".
The city was divided into seven levels, each 100 feet (30.5 m) higher than the one below it, and surrounded by a white wall, with the exception of the wall of the First Circle, which was black. The outer face of this outer wall, the lowest, was made of black stone, the same material used in
Orthanc; it was vulnerable only to earthquakes capable of rending the ground where it stood. The Great Gates of Minas Tirith faced east in the outer wall, guarded by huge stone towers and fortified positions. The gates were built with siege in mind: constructed of iron, they were extremely difficult to break into. This gate has only ever been assaulted and felled once, and its replacement, built by the Dwarves of
Erebor of
mithril (which in Tolkien's writing is the hardest metal of all) is almost unassailable.
The gates of the Second Level through the Sixth Level were built so that they were at different positions of the wall. The Second Level gate faces south east, the Third north east, and so forth. This measure was to make capture of the already heavily fortified city even more difficult. Also, a spur of rock, the summit of which was level with the city's uppermost tier, jutted out from the hill in an easterly direction, dividing all but the first level into two. On the
saddle between the city and Mindolluin was
Rath Dínen (The Silent Street), where the ornate tombs of the
Kings of Gondor and their
Stewards were built. It was reached by a door in the Sixth Level, which is almost always closed, the
Closed Door. The Sixth Level also contained stables for riders, and the famed
Houses of Healing.
The gate of the seventh level was reached by a lit tunnel from the Sixth level. Within the seventh wall was the Citadel with the White
Tower of Ecthelion, (where the
Seeing Stone of Minas Anor rested) which was 300 feet (91.5 m) high, so that its pinnacle was one thousand feet above the plain. In a court before the Tower, the
White Tree, symbol of Gondor, grows. The topmost level also contains lodgings for the
Steward of Gondor, the King's House,
Merethrond the Hall of Feasts, barracks for the
Guard of the Citadel, and other buildings for guests and other workers.
The first level included an inn, the Old Guesthouse. The wide paved street it was on was called Lampwright's Street, which led to the gate. The city would also have included a city square, probably before the gates, and probably a market.
Map #40 in Barbara Strachey's
Journeys of Frodo is a plan of Minas Tirith. Pages 138&139 in
Karen Wynn Fonstad's revised
The Atlas of Middle-earth is another plan of Minas Tirith. They are at variance with each other, as the only authoritative maps by Tolkien are just sketches.
History
Early history
Originally known as
Minas Anor, the "Tower of the Setting Sun", Minas Tirith was built in by
Anárion, younger brother of
Isildur and second son of
Elendil,
High King of
Arnor.
Ostoher rebuilt the city in as a summer residence, and it became the capital of Gondor in, when King
Tarondor moved the King's House from Osgiliath following the Great Plague, which devastated the population of the much larger and populous old capital.
In 2002, the White City's companion city,
Minas Ithil, Tower of the Rising Moon (Moontower), on the borders of
Mordor, was captured by the
Nazgûl and renamed Minas Morgul, Tower of Sorcery (Dead City, accursed tower). Minas Anor was renamed Minas Tirith, meaning "Tower of Guard", to indicate that since the fall of Minas Ithil, Minas Tirith assumed the role of guarding Gondor against Mordor's forces. For the next thousand years, the two cities were in a stalemate, with neither able to topple the other. With the rebuilding of the Dark Tower and the open return of Sauron, the forces of Mordor gathered their strength to topple Minas Tirith in the upcoming
War of the Ring.
The War of the Ring
(–3019), Minas Tirith is said to have had less than half of the population which could have dwelt there at ease. Many of the buildings had fallen into ruin and disrepair, a sad yet fitting picture of Gondor in those latter days.
Rammas Echor
In the latter part of the Third Age, Minas Tirith and its lands were surrounded by the
Rammas Echor, a fortified wall encircling the
Pelennor Fields and meeting up with
Osgiliath, where the
Causeway Forts were built on the west bank of the
Anduin and garrisoned, though Osgiliath itself remained in ruins. This outwall was built by
Ecthelion II but fell into disrepair after his death, only to be repaired in the year leading up to the War.
His successor
Denethor II ordered
Osgiliath and the Rammas to be defended, despite the advice of the council who wanted to retreat back to Minas Tirith and hold out from there. As told in
The Return of the King, the Rammas proved an ineffective defence due to the overwhelming
Orc legions of Mordor, who penetrated the wall and laid siege to the city before the
Battle of the Pelennor Fields.
Siege
Faramir and the garrison were unable to hold Osgiliath and the Causeway Forts against the overwhelming forces of Mordor and were driven back with heavy loss. Leading the rearguard against the onslaught, he was wounded and nearly slain but the cavalry charge of Prince
Imrahil of
Dol Amroth and
Gandalf saved him and the counter-attack allowed the rest of Gondor's soldiers to reach the safety of the city.
Minas Tirith was besieged by troops of Mordor, the
Easterlings and the
Haradrim, and the land fell under the Great Darkness generated by Mordor. Significant damage was done to the first circle of the city but the Enemy was unable to break through the wall — except in one place. The gate of the city was broken by a combination of the battering ram
Grond and the
Witch-king's sorcery. However, the Witch-king was halted at the entrance by Gandalf.
The timely arrival of the
Rohirrim led by
King Théoden forced the armies of Mordor to face the newcomers instead of assaulting the city. The resulting
Battle of the Pelennor Fields took place on March 15, 3019 in the fields surrounding the city. Despite heavy losses, Minas Tirith itself wasn't seriously threatened again and the battle was won by Gondor and its allies from
Rohan and Gondor's fiefs.
Later
On May 1, 3019 King
Elessar's coronation took place on the plain outside Minas Tirith, he then entered the city as King.
Minas Tirith is known to have stood firm well into the
Fourth Age.
Gimli the Dwarf and some of
Durin's folk used
mithril, a nigh-indestructible metal, to replace the gates that had been broken in the
War of the Ring. It remained the chief city of Gondor, as it isn't actually known whether
Osgiliath was ever rebuilt.
Minas Ithil, however, was destroyed by
Elessar, King of Gondor, soon after the
War of the Ring.
The
eagle who brings the news of
Sauron's defeat to Minas Tirith refers to the city as the Tower of Anor. The eagle might have been speaking poetically, but as
Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age in
The Silmarillion says, the city is referred to Minas Anor again after Sauron's overthrow. However, in the abandoned sequel
The New Shadow, which takes place during the time of Elessar's son
Eldarion, the city was named Minas Tirith.
Portrayal in adaptations
by
Peter Jackson.]]
Tolkien's description of the physical layout of Minas Tirith is followed relatively faithfully in
Peter Jackson's film, Jackson interpreting the top of the rock as flattened and paved. In the films Minas Tirith is the location for the coronation of
Aragorn.
Portions of Minas Tirith were constructed as full-scale sets, and the whole city as a very large, highly detailed miniature or "
bigature" by
Weta Workshop. A remarkably detailed three-dimensional digital model, for
CGI shots, along with the whole of its surrounding environment including the Pelennor Fields and Mindolluin (but not the Rammas Echor, which was visually omitted from the films, despite being mentioned in the dialogue, where
Théoden gave the order to the
Rohirrim beginning "When we get through the Wall..." quoted directly from the book.) was created by
Weta Digital.
According to the non-canon New Line book
The Lord of the Rings Weapons and Warfare the height of Minas Tirith in the films from the foot of the gates to the top of the Tower of Ecthelion (which individually is said to be 300 feet tall) could be estimated to be around 1,000 feet (304.8 m), and the diameter of the city almost three-quarters of a mile (3,960 feet). The book also suggests that the towering bastion of stone, shaped like the keel of a ship, which rose from behind the Great Gates on the first level to the citadel on the seventh, was a quarter of a mile tall (1 320 feet). However this height doesn't take into account the Tower of Ecthelion, which was situated on the seventh level, meaning that in total the city is some 1,620 feet tall (493.7 m). This means that the city's total height is somewhere between 1,000 feet (304.8 m) and 1,620 feet (493.7 m).
In
The Atlas of Middle-earth, published before the New Line films
Kathryn Wynn Fonstad estimates the diameter of the city to be much smaller - estimating 3,100 feet for the First Circle of the City.
In the novel, the outer walls of Minas Tirith are virtually indestructible like the similar black surface of the
Orthanc, as they were built by the
Dúnedain before their craft waned in exile, and it was said that only an earthquake or similar seismic convulsion could cause significant damage.
Despite the vivid descriptions of Minas Tirith's outer walls as a black, indestructible wall as depicted in Tolkien's books, they're otherwise shown in Jackson's portrayal of the novels as simple walls. The walls were clearly shown as destructible as Mordor's catapults and siege towers laid waste to the walls.
In the films, the towers of Minas Tirith are equipped with
trebuchets. However, this kind of siege engine isn't specifically mentioned in the book.
According to the Making Of featurettes on the Extended Edition DVDs, the appearance and structure of the city was based upon the
Mont Saint-Michel, France, along with
St Michael's Mount, Cornwall. However, the overall structure is remarkably reminiscent of
Pieter Brueghel's
Tower of Babel with the upper portions of the city revealing influences from
Neuschwanstein Castle built by
King Ludwig II of Bavaria.
Further Information
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